What I got from "What I Learned in the Nursery"

“These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green.” -G. K. Chesterton What I Learned in the Nursery

At first I didn’t really grasp what Chesterton was saying, but this sentence made me see the whole story clearly. Fairy tales give us that feeling we first felt when we learned something new and wonderful about the world. Then, at the very end Chesterton talks about forgetting and how; “We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.” Saying it is in like fairytales and “spirit and art and ecstasy” that we find our true self and remember who we truly are. I think these are beautiful thoughts about fairy tales and I believe there is some truth behind it. Fairy tales allow one to be delights by the world in a new way for a moment, just like when we experienced it the first time. And in those moments we remember what we have forgotten (aka the simple joys in life).