THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE ROSE

THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE ROSE

At 9 years old

she had a strange fascination

for topics that were not necessarily considered

normal for her tender age

Often seeking solace and refuge inside

stories and fantasy worlds

Conversations with non-existent companions

or even more strange

conversations that went into intricate detail

and levels of complexity

with no one to answer back but herself

It was the story of a little girl she read

in her mothers Readers digest collection

who was the same age as her

that she was particularly drawn to as a child

A story that described

the lonely world of a another little girl

who would never be like the rest of her peers

Unable to communicate

she would never fit in

discarded, looked upon with pity

Her only saving grace

she was unable to process the shocking looks of prejudice

that came along with her affliction.

That story stuck with the 9 year old

...little did she realize that she could so intimately relate

But due to her own strange ways of processing the world

she was unable to see the correlations in behaviour

it was simply the sad story of an unfortunate little girl

The book has long been discarded

but the intricate details and memory of that little girl

never went away

She still holds a strange connection

a fascination

with that other little girl

who would never be able to live and play

like other girls do.

Always hanging on the periphery

unable to engage

terrified that others would notice her faux pars

And never understanding why she was excluded

The title of that article she read as a 9 year old girl was simply called

THE BLUE ROSE
Th story was written in 1974.

She has been on a life long quest to figure out the elusive

yet multi faceted message of the blue rose

And just yesterday...she finally figured it out

© Teresa / Divinia 30^th October 2014

The author, Gerda Klein, is an Austrian author and Holocaust
survivor.

"THE BLUE ROSE is the story of Jenny, a child with developmental
disabilities. The 2008 revised edition is in response to numerous
requests. The first edition became a Reader’s Digest feature, inspired
a film in India, musical score in Canada, and the creation of The Blue
Rose Foundation in the USA."

LINKS

Excerpt of original story

http://www.righttolivecairo.org/rose.htm

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.books.childrens/vZEQeoYzLoI

Oh my gosh... am in awe and shock, today 1st April 2014, I found this beautiful movie called THE BLUE ROSE.  I sat here with tears falling from my eyes at just how beautiful the story is, and how I can relate...

It's a short fils that runs for 20 minutes by a lady director called
Joclyn Rose Lyons

THE BLUE ROSE MOVIE

COZ I'D RATHER BE DIFFERENT THAN BE THE SAME

Im reminiscing about my favourite childhood movies...

OH Gosh, I’ll not only be showing my age, but I’ll be disclosing the depth of my absurd childish tendencies, well into my 4^th decade of living.

The story centres around a 12 year old boy called Jimmy (played by Jack Wild, the boy with the Strange British accent) who wags school one day, only to find himself kidnapped by a wicked witch who wants to steal the diamond encrusted talking flute called Freddie(pronounced FWEDDY), when he lands on an Island that has talking trees and talking magical spell books.

And a dragon for a Mayor.

As a four year old, it didn’t ever once enter my mind that any of this was anything but a fantastic story that sparked my imagination, got me singing along (I still know all the words), and began a lifelong obsession of trying to track down the record. (mine was melted in a window when I took it to school for show n tell in 1972)  

I’m having a bit of a laugh here today, looking at this movie through adult eyes, absolutely gobsmacked and profoundly thankful for the gift of childlike innocence.

In today’s politically correct, nanny state society, this movie would not have gotten past the story board stage for fear of GASP… promoting such wild ideas.

Let’s start with Jimmy, the boy I had a crush on for most of my childhood…(that’s before I saw Billy Mummy, and before I discovered Michael Jackson)   ok, so I have a thing for boys who are not quite normal, who live in fantasy worlds and refuse to grow up…projection much????   Maybe

Jimmy forgets that he is even supposed to go to school…OH SCHOOL””…!!!.  Promptly  wags school, is clumsy, gets teased, ostracized, is an outcast…

In today’s world of overzealous diagnosis, Jimmy would more than likely be on serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, lithium, Ritalin or any number of medications to control hallucinations, and unruly behavior.  He’d promptly be labelled with a number of disorders…ADHD, schizophrenia, Goodness knows what else…

I seriously wonder what kind of affect this movie actually had on my young impressionable mind.  What messages was I learning?  How much of it did I take into my adult life???

Well, from what I can remember, I saw it as the Bible on how to live life.

School most definitely was boring, and I could relate to the mind lapses   “OH SCHOOL” !!!????

I thought school was NOT a place conducive to learning, and that maths was NOT necessarily going to teach me how to learn some of the more important lessons I would have to face in my teenage and adult years.  Like, figuring out that you are somehow DIFFERENT from everybody else, you don’t fit in. 

I was always comforted by the lament of the witches and their song Different.  Celebrating diversity, and teaching that in life, it’s not about conforming to please, or to be someone you clearly ARE NOT.  Rather, it’s about finding like-minded folk to be around, and thus lessening those feelings of being alone because you are not the same.

“coz I’d rather be different, than be the same”  It became my anthem.

Living Island is a very tolerant place.  A most amazing place.  With hippy trees for Peace and Love…

“Living here in harmony and hope someday, we hope someday, the whole world will live this way”

It also taught me to call on the Angels to stamp out any evil I felt in my life, and that good will always outweigh evil, selfish, greedy manipulators.  When I was bullied, I called in my own Angel  Raid.

It was politically incorrect on every level,  it would not pass censorship for children by todays standards, and yet, I have no problems allowing my 10 year olds watching this gem of a movie, with an underlying message of LOVE, and TOLERANCE.

The fact that the witches look like a bunch of drag Queens,  on a cane toad hallucinogenic trip dancing… no… floating… is no turn off to me…  I want that to be their normal.  It takes all kinds to make up this world.

Bless this movie, and it’s wonderful message, and soundtrack