GET OUT OF MY SWAMP

What’s your favourite fairy tale, class?

When you are growing up, you’re fed notions of fairy tale endings, princes marrying princesses and finding true love. It’s a con, but it’s not an ill-meaning con. The idea behind the fairy tale for children is to promote this sense of anything being possible. It creates a sense of wonder and magic. That’s why places like Disneyland are some of the most incredible places to be in the world.

As a child my favourite was Little Red Riding Hood. I found it fascinating that Red couldn’t see that the wolf was in the bed instead of her Grandma. Something so obvious it clearly became un-obvious. But this also made me wary. Could it be true that a real monster could hide in plain sight? I have always kept one eye open because of it.

I came to the OSW and found it was in my best interests to adhere to that policy, because I had never been in a place full of just so many monsters. Monsters on the outside and monsters on the inside. Sometimes, in rare cases, a monster on both. And so, time passed, with our hero dispersing monsters left, right and centre, until he came to a very special monster.

When I became an adult and left the world of kids stories behind me. I found myself drawn to a new source of wonder. A new film had taken the world by storm, led by a green ogre with a Scottish accent.

That’s right. Shrek.

A world where all my favourite fairy tale characters existed and could be seen and often spoken to. And what struck me about Shrek was that he was such an odd character to have as your hero, or even your anti-hero, but yet it just worked.

Shrek started the film by staking claim to his land, demanding his swamp be left alone. His enemies, the locals with pitchforks and torches, could not breach access to his swamp. His potential friends couldn’t either. Shrek had to be drawn out of his comfort zone before he could even begin to imagine leaving his old ways behind.

And Shrek, in many ways, is just like The Scarecrow. A monster in the shape of The Scarecrow, brazenly defending territory that he has no right to lay claim to – in this case the OSW – just because he thinks he is the loudest and scariest of all the monsters. His enemies have battled for generations to break down his defences, and people have tried to befriend him only to be knocked back just the same.

Except just like Shrek, The Scarecrow was pulled out of his comfort zone, and asked to work on behalf of Yahweh. And all of a sudden, Rain has found a way to access The Scarecrow’s own swamp – HIS VOID – and he has found himself allied with people he would never previously have allied with. The Scarecrow is changing before our very eyes, and it is just wonderful.

Didn’t I say earlier, Scarecrow, that fairy tales make anything possible?