Who's Chip Anyway

Beauty and the Beast is a tale as old as time. At least, that’s what they sing in the song that every Disney lover can sing by heart. Beauty and the Beast is a beloved tale, and I am one of those people who love it, too. I know the Disney version forwards and backwards, I can quote it and sing along with the best of them. So, when the live-action film came out, I couldn’t wait to share my favorite princess with my Daughter. To help her get familiar with the story I put on the classic animated version. I re-lived my childhood and dreamed with Belle as she sang about adventure in the big-wide somewhere. I was enjoying every moment and then Chip was introduced. Of course, who doesn’t love Chip? He’s cute, relatable and he plays a vital role in helping Belle get back to Beast. But as the movie continued I began to wonder who chip really was. Was Mrs. Potts really his mom? If so how was she able to have chip at such an advanced age? There had to be more to Chip than what Disney revealed. So, my quest began to learn who Chip really was and where he came from.

              I started my search where everyone else does- good old google. It didn’t take long for me to find the possible origin of the story of Beauty and the Beast. The title was Cupid and Psyche written in 2AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. The story is about a girl Psyche who falls in love with Cupid, but she doesn’t know her lover is Cupid. In fact, Cupid hides his identity from her and tells her that he’s ugly. Our heroine goes along with it until one-night curiosity gets the better of her. She devises a plan with her sister to kill her lover, thus ridding the world of a hideous monster. So, she grabs a lamp and a dagger and discovers her hideous lover-monster is the one and only super-babe Cupid. Of course, because it is a Greek tale there is a lot more involved, but where this story gets interesting is when Psyche gets knocked up by Cupid. Could this be the first version of Chip? Really there’s no way of really knowing for sure. There’s only one way to go from here and that’s onto the next version of this story.

              It may come as a surprise (or maybe not) that our beloved story has Italian roots. Here we have a story much closer to the one we all know and love. It was given the very appropriate title; The Pig King and it was written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola. In this version the King and Queen are childless they make a deal with the local fairies, because nothing ever goes wrong when magic is involved, to have a child. Of course, one of the stipulations is the child has to be a pig until he’s married three times. So, our pig-faced prince grew up and married three sisters. He killed the first and second sister, and the third one was lucky wife number three. The Prince revealed himself to be handsome and the third wife had a child. Again, with this story there is also a lot of extra drama, as you can imagine. Again, we have our heroine conceiving a child. Maybe this child is another version of Chip, maybe he isn’t. It’s another piece of the puzzle that can’t quite be solved. So, let’s move on to the next version of the tale.

              This one is the classic French version and the closest to the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, the title is Beauty and the Beast, and it was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. So, how is this story different? Chip does not exist in this version either. Which makes me wonder where Disney got the idea for Chip. After reading multiple versions of Beauty and The Beast and trying to find some connection, I honestly can’t find a legitimate one. I can theorize that Chip is the Beast’s illegitimate child, or maybe he was an orphan taken in by the castle, since that practice was not uncommon for the time. But I also have to address the fact that no one aged in the castle while they were under the spell, so was the Beast really able to have Chip at the time? I think the answer is no.

              The last version to examine is of course, the live-action version. Here we have Mrs. Potts who seems to be a little bit younger than her animated counterpart and she has a husband! Did Disney answer the question in their own way with the live-action version? With this particular story the origin of Chip and his parentage actually seems believable. In the end, no matter which version of Beauty and the Beast you love, we can all agree that it is a tale as old as time and no matter where Chip comes from he is easily one of the best characters in the story. He’s just a kid and he finds a way to save the day. The message alone that his story tells is one worth sharing.  So, in the end I’m glad Disney invented this character, because the story is one that I will share with my family for generations to come.

Catching Up

A lot has happened since my last post. I wish I could say I have another book written and ready to be released but sadly that is not the case. It's far from it. I finished the spring semester of school with and A and began work on my house to fix it up so it would sell so my family could buy a new house and get settled. The repair to the bathroom was going well. I was starting the demolition and I had help from my brother and sister in law. It was also the last week of school for my kids. I had gotten all the tile off the wall and dry wall that surrounded the bathtub. My brother in law helped me demo the bathroom vanity and floor.

School let out officially for the summer on friday. I attended the last assembly of the school year at my son's school that morning with my brother and sister in law. I didn't know the next day everything was going to change. All in the blink of an eye.

Saturday morning I bought a box of donuts. My husband took the day off from work so we could get the bathroom work well underway. Since All the demolition was done we had to replace the sub floor and work our way up. My sister in law helped out with the kids. My brother in law helped my husband with all the work and I grabbed whatever tools they needed. We all spent the day together. They helped us bring bathroom stuff to our house when we went shopping for supplies. They left our house in the afternoon, I started dinner. My husband began work on the bathroom trying to decide how he wanted to go about fixing it. We were eating dinner when I got a phone call from my mother in law asking me what happened to Peter. She told me he was hurt in an accident and was unconscious. I told her he was fine we were eating dinner. I told my husband what had happened and asked him to call his mom. Not long after that my mother in law showed up at our door telling us that my sister in law and brother in law were in a car accident and their daughter was with them. We all piled in my car and started driving to the hospital. It was pouring rain outside. In fact the area was flooding. We had to change our path frequently to avoid flood zones. It should have been a twenty minute drive to the hospital and it took us almost an hour to get there. We had no idea what we were about to walk into.

When we arrived and parked we made our way into the emergency room after explaining who we were looking for they brought out security. They also told us only two people were there. There should have been three. This was the second time in my life in a nine month span that we have been told by hospital staff that a family member has died. I watched my mother in law collapse to the floor wailing. I had my two kids, and tried to stay calm. My husband went to comfort his mom. I looked at one of the nurses and asked, "Is she really dead?" He shook his head, yes.

My sister in law was killed in a car accident and it flipped my entire life on it's head.

I can't even begin to explain the following weeks and months that have passed since that night. I'm still trying to catch up and process it all. We left our house that night and moved into my brother in laws' house. He was badly injured and couldn't really walk for a month. He had broken nearly every rib on his right side along with his sternum, collarbone, eyesocket, and jaw. He was unrecognizable in the ER room. We moved in to help him with his kids and really help any way we could. My entire life went on hold so I could help. My niece had superficial wounds from the wreck which is a miracle considering she was unrestrained in the car at the time of impact.

While my Brother in law was recovering I would take trips to my house and I began boxing and moving everything out. I also began the updates to my home. It was a nice distraction from the chaos that was surrounding me. It was the only thing that made sense and I threw myself into it. I spent my mornings driving my brother in law anywhere he needed to go and spent the afternoons turning my house into something better than what my husband and I had first purchased. Work didn't finish until August. In the meantime my brother in law bought a cheap car and I wasn't as needed as I had been.

In september my brother in law returned to work. I stepped into a new role. Because my brother in law works nights I began taking care of his kids from the time they came home from school until they went to bed at night. Nothing has been easy. Everything has felt like a struggle since that night in May. My house finally received an offer after being listed for over 100 days. My husband and I found a new home to buy. I had to take the fall semester off from school so I could focus on my family and moving. Everything is out of my old house and spread across four different places. I'm waiting for the closing date and then I'll be waiting to close on the new house.

I'm essentially homeless. Sure i'm staying with my brother in law but to save on money I stay close to where my kids go to school. I can't stay at my old house I'm done there. Everything has been cleaned up and it's ready for the new family. I'm still trying to process the last five almost six months of my life. So much has changed. It was sudden change and it's all fixing to change again. In January I go back to school and I'm wondering if I'm really ready. I'm relying on public places for a place to stay during the day until I have my new house. I went to the library to hopefully get to work on some new story. But right now it all feels so pointless. I'm surrounded by books and I'm just not that into it. The escape would be nice but the reality of it all creeps in and before I know it I've read the same sentence over and over without it making sense. So I figured I would tell internet strangers why I've stepped away from writing for so long. Usually I'm working on something whether it's a plot line for a new idea, a poem, or a character, I'm usually writing. In a way I still am. I'm writing this at least.

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Swelling Swelling shake shake and still
A baby cries with no reply
She lies there in a heap, A hill
Unknowing of her child's cry
Her arms no longer long to hold
She plans no more for her first born
"She is gone," the father is told
Sobbing sobbing shake shake, he mourns.

Reprieve

The ground is cracked and hard
The wind blows a dry heat
Withered and brown is the grass
Oh where are the clouds?

Worms writhe on the pavement
The birds hop with gaping mouths
The water turns dark green
Oh where is the sweet reprieve?

The sun beats down, burning
The flowers have withered
The bees are not humming
Oh where is the thunder?

Suddenly, the wind shifts
The clouds start to gather
The day becomes darker
A reprieve is coming.

Thunder rumbles far away
Soft at first, a few drops fall
Growing stronger, thunder claps,
Wind whips, rain soaks, sky gray;
The drought has finally ended.

One Week

It's been one week since you've gone

A hole is left where you once were

Sometimes I forget in the moment between asleep and awake

And all too soon the air is sucked from my lungs when I remember

We remembered your life yesterday.

It's funny, your life was more than a slide show or 12 hundred word biography

You meant so much to so many

You're in a better place

But we're still here missing you

Trying to put our lives back together without you.

I keep waiting for solace

I'm trying to find normal

But how can there be peace

When I fight to breathe during the silence?

Your gift was music

Your heart was giving

Your life was simple

You were happy

I want comfort

I want peace

I want to stop missing you

Maybe soon it will come

Maybe soon I can breathe again

Maybe soon I can find my new normal

But I will never forget you.

Sudden Death -RIP S.M.

Last night I went to bed with only the next days tasks at mind.
Last night I went to bed making plans for the next day.
That was until the call.
A rush to the hospital
A shuffle into a room
Company of a friend
The nurse and doctor walk in
The words they say take so long to comprehend
My mind is racing
It can't be true
We're led to a room
A pallid face above a sheet
It still can't be true.
Phone calls are made
Tears are shed
Sobs fill the room
Children play.
It begins to sink in
The fog begins to set
Plans are being made
Confusion
Shock
Hugs
Prayers
No peace
No sleep

Overshadowed Hope Is Live

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