True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly
Watch Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" sometime with kids and when it gets to the end, watch the building excitement as the Beast fights Gaston. Then watch their faces fall as the last petal falls off of the rose. Then watch the Beast transform into the prince and the happy ending -- quick, look at the kids. They are frowning.
Small to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast
Why do the kids frown? The same reason you do. The very reason that the end of Disney's masterpiece ultimately fails -- You don't want to see Belle dancing with the prince, you want to see her dancing with the Beast.
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise
No matter how handsome he is, Belle didn't fall in love with the prince, she fell in love with the Beast and so did you.
Song as old as rhyme
Bitter sweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
No matter how you package it, the Beast is not the prince. All of his experiences, the ones that made him worthy of love were made as a monster, a monster that loved enough to change. But what did he change? At the end, he was a monster. He killed Gaston. He clawed. He roared. He was the Beast.
Rising in the East
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast
The prince became the Beast to learn what? Not humility. Not peace. Not even kindness. He must love and be loved. And while he already loved (and was loved) by his subjects, it was the love of Belle that ended his "curse."
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the beast
But is it a curse to learn what you are and to be loved for it? You frown at the end because the prince is a stranger and because we do not love perfections, we love flaws. So often we try and change what we love into something else and in the process we lose what we loved in the first place.
This is all apropos of nothing -- just remembering that I was the beast long before I was the prince.
