Author Sue Monk Kidd notes of the Fair Tale about Rapunzel the following:
The story of Rapunzel, recounted in Grimm's Fairy Tales, reveals a false-self pattern common to many of us at certain times in our life. Rapunzel was the damsel imprisoned by a witch in a tower without a door. The only access to the tower was through a solitary window at the top. When the witch wanted to visit, she stood below and called for Rapunzel to let down her long, golden hair from the window. Then the witch scampered up, using Rapunzel's hair as a ladder.
Year after year Rapunzel sat in the tower, singing sad songs and waiting for someone to come along and rescue her.
As I identified my false selves, I recognized Rapunzel in myself. She was the part of me that wanted daddy, mummy, husband or SOMEBODY else to come and fix it, the part that languished in whatever struggle I found myself, singing sad songs, and looking outside instead of inside for help.
Rapunzel is the helpless damsel waiting for rescue. Locked in a "towering" problem or difficulty, she waits for deliverance rather than taking responsibility for herself. her waiting is negative waiting, not the creative, active waiting that initiates growth.
As I thought of Rapunzel, stuck all those years in a tower without a door, I wondered why Rapunzel couldn't figure out a way to get out. AFTER ALL, THE WITCH WAS INGENIOUS ENOUGH TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET HER IN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
When I re-read the tale, especially the ending, where the witch in a fury picks up a pair of shears and cuts off Rapunzel's hair - I wondered why it had never dawned on Rapunzel to cut off her hair herself and use it as a ladder. THE ANSWER WAS THERE ALL ALONG, ONLY SHE (RAPUNZEL) WAS SO BUSY WAITING FOR RESCUE SHE DIDN'T SEE IT.
It's important to be able to ask for, and accept help, but not Rapunzel's way. She chose to forgo the contemplative experience of taping her soul-strength, (the dark night of the soul) to bury her problem-solving potential and project it onto others. Struggling with the difficulties of life, we may adopt the idea that we're too weak, too dumb, too busy, or too incompetent to take care of ourselves and extricate ourselves from pain and problems. A tape recording plays in our heads: "you can't manage that ... you aren't able to figure that out yourself ... you are too weak to do it on your own ..."
When that happens, Rapunzel makes her grand appearance.
The Rapunzel pattern reminds me of an insight ... received while watching the opening credits of the television programme "Mystery" on PBS. As the credits roll, a cartoon-animated woman whose ankles are tied waves her hands in the air and cries "Ohhh!! Ohhh!!" waiting for someone to come untie her.
I watched that show for a long while before it occurred to me that the woman's hand's weren't tied. She could, if she were so inclined, bend down and untie her own ankles.
We live in a world that wants everything new and improved, easy and fast – the easier the better and if it can be done in six easy fast steps – wonderful! But if it can be done in three even better !!
Such is the fast food society in which we live – everything is about faster, stronger, simpler and so on. Our busiest restaurants are fast food outlets that may even have signs outside that say – “15 minute parking strictly enforced”. Our news comes from stations that pride themselves at being able to reduce EVERYTHING to 30 minute rotation cycles. And our entertainment now comes in half hour or shorter packages, with audio books becoming the choice for millions of ‘readers’ – you can listen to the latest best seller while driving – rather than spending endless hours with a book in your lap, and a cup of tea at your elbow … why waste such time??
Yet, fortunately we also live in a time and a place where people are beginning to appreciate, not the speed and haste at which everything moves, but the leisurely pace that allows us to savour and enjoy things in a more timely fashion.
The whole concept of slow food is proof of the world looking at our fast-food culture and saying – “let’s slow it down and re-connect …” “let spend time over conversation rather than gulping our food and running to the next appointment …” “let savour the flavours and textures and the company … let’s take time to enjoy it …”
Time.
That’s the think that in our society we muse that we never have enough of it, and we’re always pushed for it if we find any, and we are definitely bound by it.
And in the Easter Season we are challenged to pause and consider the event that are unfolding in the narrative, and by our story today to consider the sights, the sounds, and the sensations of the Risen Christ.
We are to open our eyes, our hearts and our souls to the events happening in and around Jerusalem, and in this morning’s reading – Jesus has arrived to greet the disciples who are still wallowing in their self-pity and sorrow …
He greets them and by his actions shows them that something new is unfolding right before them – something that they are welcome and indeed invited to be part of. God is crafting something wondrous right before them that arises from the darkness of the tomb and death – and represents new life in abundance …
Rapunzel is being freed from her tower to return to that metaphor. In the moment Jesus takes the fish and eats it, he is showing those gathered that God’s rules are at play and the world has shifted to a place where the sorrow and suffering are NOT the end of the story … we are to be open to life’s possibilities and potential, and see with the WHOLE of our being, what God wants for us and what God offers us …
Opening our lives to what’s around us is a simple concept. We often say it, but we’re less open to actually doing it. We fall into old habits and fit this concept into what has been, rather than embracing what could and would be if we were to truly open ourselves to the possibilities that exist around us.
Think of Rapunzel – poor dear Rapunzel locked in that tower by the nasty old witch. The only way Rapunzel gets visits is by lowering her hair and letting the witch climb to the window … Sue Monk Kidd is right when she asks “WHY?” – why doesn’t Rapunzel cut off her OWN hair and use it to climb down and run away … Why doesn’t the woman tied the tracks just reach down
and untie her OWN ankles and set her self free …
Because we’ve been conditioned – by the stories we tell ourselves – by the little tape that plays inside our heads – by our own past, we’ve convinced ourselves that we need to be rescued and helped and so we sit like Rapunzel playing our sad songs and lamenting as we call for help …
But Easter is the moment that breaks through and asks the blunt question – WHAT ARE YOU DOING???
Rapunzel, why are you sitting in this tower weeping and waiting for rescue when all you need to do is take the scissors and snip off your own hair and you have a rope to climb down on …
What is holding US captive?
What things in our lives are keeping us from being fully, the people we are meant to be?
What changes are we waiting for someone ELSE to make when in truth the changes are already within us?
My mind wanders to the old Saturday Night Live sketches that had Al Franken step out as self help motivator Stuart Smalley. Clad in a sweater and a big smile, he would look into the camera and say – “You’re good enough. You’re smart enough. Doggone it people like you…” and other warm pink fuzzy platitudes.
From the absurdity of this character whispers a truth … the gift of Grace that we are about as a Church is simply that – “you are good enough. You are smart enough. AND people DO like you …”
The power of the resurrection – the gift of Grace incarnate in our world is found in accepting that realization and opening ourselves to the FULL potential of what that can and does mean …
Opening our eyes to what is before us and having the courage and the faith to embrace God’s presence ALL around us …
There are countless people who have made MILLIONS of dollars from the whole self-help industry, and when you look critically at what is happening you realize that ALL of the successful self-help stories are about helping one’s self … we look out there to find what is already here …
The disciples wanted someone to push back the darkness and the fear and rescue them …and suddenly Jesus was there opening their eyes to what they already knew, but had simply forgotten …
Rapunzel cried for help and waited for rescue when the solution was there ALL the time …
We are Children of God – bound by love and grace … we can sit and lament how things are, or we can, as people of faith claim the gift of Grace and proclaim our faith in the resurrection by living IT …
The choice is ours … and doggone it - we know what we have to do!!
May it be so, Thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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