I am a big fan of fairy tales so when I heard there was a new version of Jack and the Beanstalk coming out by the same director of X-Men well they had my attention. Yes I know it will probably have very little similarity to the original…which got me to thinking, “What IS the original?” I have heard many different versions. There is the one where our hero Jack is poor and gets these beans from a shyster instead of the money his mother demanded for the sale of their lazy non-milk giving cow and the mom is pissed and throws the beans out the window. So Jack climbs up the beanstalk that magically grows over night and gets into the clouds and there is this castle so he enters it and discovers wealth beyond his wildest dreams as well as the wife of a giant. Soon the giant comes home and the wife hides Jack because the giant will surely kill Jack. Jack escapes and along the way steals a bag of gold. Jack returns the next day to dine again with the wife and leaves stealing a goose that lays golden eggs. Jack returns a third time…why do these things always happen in threes?…and this time he steals a harp that plays itself. The giant discovers Jack during Jack’s escape attempt and chases Jack down the beanstalk. Jack gets to the bottom where he quickly chops down the stalk throwing the giant to the ground where he dies from his injuries and everyone lives happily ever after…except for the giant and his wife I guess.
But wait…Jack is a thief right? How is he our hero? Oh…yeah there is another version that says the giant had been coming down and terrorizing the village and in fact, the goose that laid the golden eggs had actually belonged to Jack and his mom in the first place. This moralized version also says the giant’s other wealths had also been stolen from the village folk. So Jack is like Task Force 121 and the giant was like Saddam Hussein…or something like that.
Which leads me to my point…There is always a bunch of versions to the same story but really does that matter? No one is gonna hand you everything you need unless you are Petra Ecclestone or Paris Hilton so you need to find your own magic beans. Take the tools you do have, plant the seeds and nurture their growth. If you have prepared your foundation properly your seeds will grow a mighty harvest for you.
Like my man Sammy Hagar said, “If you know what you want, just go on out and get it.”
“Once darkness gets a taste for light, it will not stop.” – from Jack and the Giant Slayer