When I was 4 or 5 years old, I heard the story of the Sleeping Beauty. The first time was charming, but always after that, even when I read the beautiful version in the Shirley Temple Storybook, it frustrated me. Why oh why, I remember thinking, did the King respond to the evil curse by trying to destroy all spinning wheels? Leaving aside the fact that spinning wheels were probably necessary to the local economy, the attempted destruction seemed so obviously incorrect and probably impossible.

If instead the King and Queen had taken the time to explain the curse to their daughter, she wouldn’t have been curious when she finally encountered a spinning wheel. She would have been forewarned, armed with intelligence, able to be something other than a victim of her “destiny.”

When I was in my early teens and discovering classical mythology I encountered the story of Oedipus. OMG: the same thing! A curse laid on an infant and the parental response was to try to destroy something. In this case, the infant. If they’d raised the boy instead, educating him about the prediction made when he was born, he probably wouldn’t have killed his dad and he certainly wouldn’t have married his mom.

When I was around 40 and Katie was 14, she wrote a paper for a high school class. In it she contended that the nation’s anti-drug program was similar to the Sleeping Beauty and Oedipus stories. It’s crazy to think we can eliminate all drugs and it’s fantasy to preach “just say no.” Instead we need to provide real information to kids about drugs and drug abuse and what’s necessary to grow into an adult.

The paper was brilliant. The teacher was stupid. Katie didn’t get the grade it deserved.

Knowledge really is power. Forewarning really is fore-arming. And let’s not allow any more sitcom or movie plots that rely upon family or friends who keep unnecessary secrets from one another. Let’s drive better plot engines. Please.