The Dread Pirate Roberts

We watched a little bit of The Princess Bride yesterday evening - one of those favorite classics from my college days that is rich in quotables. ("Inconceivable!") Many years ago, as newlyweds, we attended a Princess Bride party at the home of one of our high school buddies, where we each had to dress as a character from the movie. My husband and I went as R.O.U.S.'s (Rodents Of Unusual Size), with rat head hats made from construction paper and tails made out of rope, attached to our brown shirts and pants. It was fun.

Anyway, there's that part in the movie where Westley is captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who never takes prisoners alive. He is presumed dead for five years, but shows up later. He tells his tale of how he survived. He persuaded the pirate to keep him alive by sharing his story of love for Princess Buttercup. The pirate decides to try him out as a protege and potential heir to the "Dread Pirate Roberts" name, but every night he bids him good night, saying, "Sleep well - I'll most likely kill you in the morning." Westley manages to survive each day, and five years later returns to his princess as the new Dread Pirate Roberts.

There is another scene where he is imprisoned by an evil prince and tortured to death in a machine designed to "suck out life." His friends take his "mostly dead" body to Max the Miracle Worker (played hilariously by Billy Crystal) for a miracle. Max inflates Westley's body with a bellows and pushes on his chest, asking him what he has to live for. "Truuuuuue looooooove...." is the groan that comes out. The miracle pill that Max designs (and coats with chocolate to make it go down easier) ends up working, and Westley lives to claim his princess (his true love).

Sometimes I feel like I have the Dread Pirate Roberts inside me. "Sleep well...I'll most likely kill you in the morning..." he tells me. But hopefully I'll just survive each day, one day/one hurdle at a time, and look back on this five years from now as a memory. Hopefully by then that old pirate will be gone, and I will be in charge. After all, what do I have to live for? Truuuuuuuue looooooove! I am married to the great love of my life, and I have two children who take up whatever is left of my heart. I have true love. For - evvvvv - er love. Instead of Max, I have gone to the Real Miracle Worker, and hopefully this truuuuue loooooove (combined with faith) will help bring about a miracle for me. And maybe chocolate makes anything go down easier, so maybe we should have some of that on hand!