Ever So Much More Than Twenty

When I was five, my friend Ashley came over to play and we listened to the audio book of "The Land Before Time." After Littlefoot's mother had been killed by Sharptooth, he found the tree star, and journeyed past the mountains on fire and the rock that looks like a longneck to reach the Great Valley, Ashley said "let's listen to it again; maybe his mom won't die this time."

In a roundabout way, that's how I feel about the legend of King Arthur. I'm so enamored with the story - Le Morte d'Arthur by Mallory, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by Steinbeck, The Once and Future King by White. I especially love how Merlin ages backward. But I keep wishing things played out better in this version. There is something deeply unsettling in this tale.

I went to the play "Camelot" with Aunt Dede this weekend and remembered how much I'd hated the movie as a kid. Even then, the themes of infidelity and especially the fact that King Arthur is ok with it have stayed with me these many years. He's such a good guy (played to perfection in the play version we saw) - abandoned by his mentor and betrayed by the woman he loves and his best friend - and you can just feel the doom hanging over his head. There's no escaping it, and the play leaves you with no closure; none of the feel-good ending that you hope for a musical.