I’d heard snippets of the new song a few times but hadn’t listened to the whole thing until this last week. But apparently, “Royals” by Lorde is a big thing right now. (And a controversial thing, for various reasons Google really wanted to tell me about, but that’s completely beside my point this morning. So I’m ignoring all that.)

Have you heard this song? Here are a few lyrics:

We’re better than we’ve every dreamed
And I’m in love with being queen

Life is great without a care
We aren’t caught up in your love affair

And we’ll never be royals (royals)
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of lux just ain’t for us, we crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler (ruler)
You can call me queen bee
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule
Let me live that fantasy

The song, as I understand it, is about the tension between feeling content with your real life and feeling envy of the luxury (or fairy tales!) you hear about in others’ lives. (Or, you know, that’s what this Midwestern, suburban wife and mom nearing middle age is hearing. I do realize I’m not exactly the target audience of this particular song…)

And so, at least in my interpretation, this song seemed a pretty good fit for what we’ve been talking about this week. A few other posts that fit in our theme of giving up on fairy tales are below.

Becoming Friend Worthy: Don’t Try to Look Perfect – Snail Pace Transformations
I think it is only human to want to have others think highly of us. However, I think that sometimes we assume that to have others think highly of us we have to hide our flaws and appear perfect.

What we forget is that God did no create perfect humans and when we try to make it look like He did we put off a sort of “holier than thou” friend repellent.

Snip, Snip – Nicole Joelle
It always happens. Eventually, I just give in to being a short-haired gal and, since becoming a mom, have to let go of the idea of being that cool, long-haired, stylish mom who didn’t give in to the mom-cut…

But, really, that’s just a silly idea I gave myself. Having short hair doesn’t mean that I’ve given up. Or that long-haired moms are more hip than short-haired ones. That’s simply not true.

Communion in Mismatched Plates – Tsh at (in)courage
I’m not loved for my near-perfection, and neither are you. We’re loved because He is love, plain and simple.

Furthermore—our friends don’t love us for our perfection, either. In fact, don’t you breathe a little sigh of relief and smile a bit when you come to a friend’s house and you witness a peek of their crazy? There’s something comforting in seeing reality in others’ lives.

What have you read or written this week about giving up on the idea of perfection and fairy tales, of embracing real life, of learning to be content?

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