Once, there was a very hot girl. No, literally, she was so hot that by the time she reached adulthood, she had already burned down two homes.
To save the people around her from her destruction, she ran to the ocean and lived on the beach. She didn’t like to go into the ocean, as it boiled and evaporated around her, but she couldn’t set sand on fire, so she felt safe.
She felt she had no place in the world and could do no good for the world.
It got colder; the ocean began to freeze. One day there was a terrible ice storm. While the girl stayed dry and untouched, everything around her became covered in a thick layer of ice. She saw tree branches fall under the weight. She saw people struggle to get anywhere, or even leave their homes. Everything but the girl was destroyed. She generally stayed far away from plants, but she ventured a few steps toward a frozen tree. Not too close, but the ice began to melt off its branches. She kept walking close, but not too close, to the trees along the beach. She watched branches spring back up after losing the weight of the ice. She had never seen her heat do anything but damage. As the storm passed, she continued up and down the beach near the trees, melting the ice off their branches and trunks. Animals began to come back to the trees, some even seemed to follow her at a distance, searching for warmth. Eventually, people started coming out of their homes and when she turned to run and hide from them, they begged her to stay. They were cold; their houses were too damaged to keep them warm. So she stayed. She sat in the middle of the beach and slowly people came to the beach and gathered around her, at a great distance, to warm themselves, like a great bonfire, bringing a community together.
And finally, the girl had a purpose.
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Inspired by Spring thaw and a recent ice storm that interrupted it.
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The next video essay is about Little Red Riding Hood and I’m hard at work video editing! I’m referencing a lot more films than the last video so I have a lot to go through to find appropriate clips. You’ll see it in a few weeks!
(Click here to watch my first fairy tale film video essay about Snow White.)