“Mirror, mirror upon the wall, Who is the fairest fair of all?”

The mirror answered-

“Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all,” and the queen was contented, because she knew the mirror could speak nothing but the truth.

People told her, “You look really good for your age”. The queen hated that.  “for your age” crap. She got bitter. She copped an attitude. The queen didn’t want to accept that age had tarnished her physical allure.

The queen couldn’t come to grips with ‘young tings’ more lovely than her. One day when the lady asked her mirror-

“Mirror, mirror upon the wall, Who is the fairest fair of all?” it answered-

“O Lady Queen, though fair ye be, you ain’t no spring chicken- but you look good for your age”

The queen was horrified, and from that moment envy and hate grew in her heart like rank weeds. The queen’s psyche short-circuited- her usually astute intelligence became clouded in obsessive revenge.

Revenge against who, ye might wonder. As quirky as it possibly seems the queen’s vendetta was directed against all those who 30 years previously cherished her and joined her crusade for rule of the fiefdom.

The mirror’s comment “but you look good for your age” drove her into post menopausal rage. The now hysterical queen struck out viciously at her former colleagues and confidantes. Disgraceful behavior for a queen.

The irate queen became the de facto “village cryer”, maligning her friends from the past on nearly a daily basis. She became quite litigious to boot. Talk about 180 degree mood swings. Her malice was amazing in its single-mindedness. The queen’s psyche did an inexplicable flip-flop. Her friends transformed into enemies. Enemies to be crushed at any cost. Poor, mixed up queen. Again, disgraceful behavior, especially for a queen.

“Mirror, mirror upon the wall, Who is the fairest fair of all?”

“O Lady Queen, though fair ye be, you ain’t no spring chicken- but you look good for your age”. Royal rage is unrelenting.   

Editor’s note: Any similarity between the fairy tale queen and any actual person is unintentional.

To quote the chorus in the lyrics to Carol King’s 1970 hit You’re So Vain, “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you. You’re so vain, I’ll bet you think this song is about you, Don’t you? Don’t you?”