The Princess and the Pea

Posted on | September 9, 2009 |

This, on the face of it, has to be one of the most absurd fairy-tales of all time.  A princess cannot sleep on a bed with one hundred mattresses because a pea is at the very bottom, making her uncomfortable. And this is supposed to be a good thing?

Well, if we read the tale literally it is absurd, that’s for sure.  But how about if we read it as a metaphor?  Ask yourself this: What is it that keeps us awake at nights? Worries, usually.  And sometimes we tend to try and blank out our worries by ignoring them, or covering them up.  In this case it’s with another mattress until there are a hundred of them.

Perhaps the tale is telling us a simple, but powerful truth.  We can’t cover up what worries us.  We may want to stuff it under the mattress (or under the carpet, or try to avoid it with alcohol, or with outlandish behavior, or addictions …).  But it always reminds us it’s there.  It keeps us awake at nights, and it haunts our resting hours.  The Princes becomes, in this interpretation, not a spoiled kid but a symbol of the way a pure heart can be troubled.

And which of us hasn’t gone to bed at night with moral issues left unattended?

To regain the pure-hearted version of ourselves we know exists we may have to drag that bed out, take it to pieces, and remove the pea. Then we can be fully at peace again. Are you ready to do that?  That’s the question, isn’t it?

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