My life with the Seven Dwarfs...

I was given a belated small birthday present yesterday.  I am a regular customer of the four charity shops in my neighbourhood.  As an inveterate buyer of secondhand goods I keep my eye on the constantly shifting stock of these shops awaiting the arrival of the next bit of treasure.  This means that I have also come to know the staff of the shops.  Many of the staff are volunteers with the oldest being a woman of 92 and the youngest is a 16 year old school leaver.  I pop in most days and have a little chat. It was one of the women in these shops who gave me a small gift for my birthday.

I was particularly taken with tiny (3cm) models of the seven dwarfs from the Disney Snow White film.  When I asked the price, because of course, I had to have them, I was given them as a gift. They were sweetly gift-wrapped and handed to me.  I felt only slightly silly since I am rather old for collecting tiny models, but I was nonetheless secretly completely thrilled.

'Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs' was the first film I ever saw in the cinema.  I think I may have been about seven years old when my mum, aunt, two cousins and I went to the cinema to see this film.  We travelled by train to Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.  I remember being awestruck by the size of the place, the grandeur of the Art Deco surroundings and the Rockettes.  The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes were (and apparently still are) a precision female dance troupe who danced in a long line, high kicking and tap dancing on the stage of Radio City before the movie started and sometimes at the interval. As a little girl, with no exposure to anything like this, I was bowled over by the whole  experience, and then the film started.

Wowee!  Fantastic! It was in turn funny, sad, terrifying and marvelous.  I loved Snow White, especially since she had dark hair like me.  It was much more usual for princesses and heroines to have blond hair so this aspect of Snow White's appearance was an added bonus for this little Jewish brunette. Here was a beautiful maiden I could identify with.  Then there was the wicked Queen and her horrid disguise as a witch in order to kill Snow White with her poisoned apple - this terrified me, not just on the day in the cinema, but for months afterwards I would think of this nasty, gnarled witch and be frightened. Talk about archetypes.  Finally, the characters I adored and have loved for over 50 years, the seven wonderful dwarfs.

Let me tell you about my secret affair with these little men. About 10 years ago I bought myself large models of the seven dwarfs at the Disney Store. As a child we never had extra money for such trivialities, but as an adult I could choose what to spend my pennies on.  I had to have them, but I also recognised that these doll-sized models took up an inordinate amount of space and were even a slight embarrassment. After all, I was a grown-up,  wasn't I? I eventually gave the dwarfs away to the little girl next door.  They were far more suitable for a five year old.  Since then I have put the dwarfs firmly out of my mind, until yesterday, and this unexpected gift. As I giggled over these mini-statues this morning  I started thinking about all the aspects of myself that the dwarfs represented and realised once again, why I loved these tiny cartoon creations. 

Jung looked at the Snow White story and all its archetypes and I thought I would do something similar, although lacking the intellect and psychological insight. I'll start with my favourite dwarf, the one that I played in a summer kids production -

Dopey - unfortunately I always identified strongly with poor, pathetic Dopey.  I was always the slightly odd one out when i was a kid.  I certainly wasn't stupid, on the contrary, I was extremely intelligent.  I was just a bit ungainly and felt awkward and clumsy. Dopey always struck me as completely adorable and his silliness made him all the more lovable. In my heart of hearts I wanted to be Snow White, but alas, I was usually Dopey.

Bashful - never really resonated with me though I understood him and even behaved like him.  I was never backwards about coming forward, but I have and still do experience the hesitancy and shyness of Bashful, especially in large groups.  I find that I have to lecture my inner Bashful at times, so that I can network with people and push myself forward.  I think I hide Bashful pretty well, sometimes so well that I could be a dwarf called Pushy!

Sleepy - I love you.  You are a dwarf after my own heart.  Given a choice of things to do, I will channel Sleepy and take a long nap.  Sleepy has the right idea, the languorous love of life that so accurately reflects mine. If in doubt or stress, Sleepy has the answer.





Sneezy - poor old Sneezy. Like me, Sneezy must have hundreds of amorphous allergies and even occasional  sneezing accidents.  I know the tyranny of repeatedly sneezing and sneezing, sometimes without even breathing. It makes one socially unacceptable and clears crowds in times of flu epidemics. Poor Sneezy and his bulbous red nose have my total sympathy.  I know how you feel.  Someone pass that dwarf some antihistamines and tissues.

Grumpy - oy vey!  This dwarf lives in my house and even inhabits my body a lot.  I understand you, Grumpy.  I could be your psychotherapist.  The grouchy, irritable dwarf with the big personality is the one I can't help but admire.  He is always true to himself and luckily all the other dwarfs love him so much that they just sigh and embrace poor Grumpy no matter how scratchy he gets.  It does take a lot of patience to live with Grumpy, but he will always have a place in my heart.

Doc - is the font of all wisdom.  He is the frustrated Herr Doctor Professor that resides in my head.  He is the doyenne of the dwarf internet and his search engine is always reliable and accurate, as is mine.  Doc is the one I would go to for calm,loving wise advice.  He is big and cuddly and his large knowledgeable arms would enfold me and he would have the answers to eternal dilemmas.  I like to think that I have a lot of Doc in me.  I am also willing and ready to dispense wisdom, even if there is a slightly Dopey quality to that wisdom.

And finally, Happy - I wish I loved Happy more. For me, he is the boring dwarf.  The one who always looks for the silver lining and generally finds it.  Happy is the dwarf that I would like to assimilate in my life and the one that I usually forget all about.  Everyone can name six of the seven dwarfs and Happy is the one I forget.  Maybe Happy should be re-named Joyful and then I would feel a little more spirited and enthusiastic about him. Happy is the dwarf I try to convince myself to emulate. It is a work in progress.



So, seven dwarfs and seven different aspects of me - all  of this inspired by a gift of tiny toys.  All the dwarfs make me smile and maybe tomorrow I'll relate them to the seven chakras.  This could be a theme for me for a while.  At  least it gives me new justification for toy collecting.