A capoeira fairytale.

A piece written for a friend...haven't done creative writing for a hot minute!


Once upon a time in the far away land of New England lived a handsome prince. But this was no ordinary prince…this was a Brazilian prince with fiery red hair, freckled skin, and a passion like no other for a little known native artform. Little known because in the town where he lived few people knew about this native artform. The art form’s name was Capoeira…CA-PO-eI-rA…and was created by African Slaves living in Brazil a long, long, long, LONG…time ago. One day this prince was lost in thought…unbeknownst to this Prince was the fact that all of his hard work in the art form was to be paid off by one of the highest recognitions in art; he was to become a MESTRE! But this wasn’t what the prince…soon to become mestre was thinking about….no; he was lost in thought because he felt that there was something missing in his life. You see, the prince reached a point where he knew that one day…hopefully soon…he would meet a princess. Yes, and this is where the fairytale becomes interesting….

Noticing the prince lost in thought, one of his students…Oh did I fail to mention that this prince was a CA-PO-eI-rA instructor? I digress…noticing the prince lost in thought one of his students asked:

“Profesor, what are you thinking about?”

“I don’t know… “said the prince, “…just thinking about when I’ll meet someone special.”

To this the student responded, with a pat on the back:

“Ahhh, come on professor, you are a capoeirista, the girls should be falling at your feet. Don’t worry, there is someone out there for you and you will find her.”

With little conviction, but with a liiiitle glint of hope the professor answered:

“You know, maybe you are right, maybe by December I will find something.”

I don’t know how many of you have read the “The Secret”, but those words ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, set the wheels of the universe cranking into motion, and the prince without being consciously aware of it changed his WILL and INTENTION and started paving the way and setting down the road to find his princess. Another digression… “The Secret” claims that “the secret” is the “Law of Attraction” but it really should be named “The power of will and intention” because it is THIS, how we set our will and intention to make things happen, that is “the secret”… but this is a fairy tale not a testimonial so I will move on…

Within a very short period of time, the prince’s friends introduced him to a beautiful girl who was training CA-PO-eI-rA with another instructor. He knew this girl because they had crossed paths before, but nothing prepared him for what he would realize next. This is what he realized…all this time he had been searching far and wide for a princess, but all along she was right there, only a mere six degrees (maybe less) separated from him. But she was no ordinary princess, she was a Brazilian warrior princess! This warrior princess turns out, came all the way to this far away land of New England all alone but built a great network of friends and worked really really hard. She did very well for herself, but she too felt that something was missing. Setting HER will and intention to find her other half, only set the universe into faster motion and the two paths eventually met…the prince found his princess and… we all know how it ends…lets say it together now….”THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!”

Not so fast though… there were a great many things that happened in between, I’ll share one of the most interesting…and this is going to be gross. One day the princess noticed little bugs crawling all over her bedroom, which led the prince to come swooping in on his magical horse to save his princess. Ok not quite, but don’t we all love a story about the Damsel in distress? Not feminists, and CERTAINLY not me. This warrior princess could take care of things all on her own, but out of the goodness of his heart and because he felt that he was falling in love with this warrior princess, the prince came in to help her. And this is where I…yes I, whose voice do you think this is, some magical person in the sky? NO, I’m a real person…I digress again…this is where I met the warrior princess. By the way I already knew the prince. From this point on I was witness, from a far away vantage point, how these two people evolved as individuals and as a couple. The warrior princess began her evolution as a yoga instructor, and the prince having received his “Mestre” rank, started evolving to become the embodiment of what it means to be a Mestre in CA-PO-eI-rA. Their joint evolution became the Brazilian Roots Cultural Center, a place where both of their passions are manifest and are shared with the rest of the world. This magical place is a place where they will continue to evolve as individuals, as a couple, and as instructors, in order to help people along their path to find their own personal evolution.

Now that ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is the true Happily Ever After!

Socratic Buddha on deconstructing fairytales.