Today’s Guest post is provided by my kid, Abbey. She is a fan of the Marvel series of films which has dominated the Superhero landscape for a decade. Living in oblivion, as I often do, I was wholly unaware of this phenomenon. When she came home from the Avengers movie the other night and did her best to explain to me why the film was great, her insights were so remarkable, I asked her to please write a brief reflection. Well, she did and here it is, with NO SPOILERS. Enjoy!   Barely a week ago, the last in a ten year series of Marvel movies was released. Avengers Endgame was the 21st movie in the series and has broken box office records easily. But why are people across the country reacting in this way? This generation of Americans has grown up watching Tony Stark and Steve Rogers fight to save the world, and without really realizing it, we have been learning real life lessons along the way. We have seen glimpses of real life in something so fantastical that no one can look away. These stories have become America’s modern day fairytales. Every civilization throughout history has had their own fairytales and legends. They define the lives of generations and change each one’s world view. These movies have become ours. One might argue that a fairytale could only be a book, and believe me, there are still books that have this kind of influence too. But the world has changed. The stories being told in these movies show us heroes who do the right thing, but then turn around and make the same mistakes that we do. They make problems that they have to fix with sacrifice and aren’t just immediately okay when they experience grief, as it typically feels in fairytales. They are real and yet not. They are what this generation wishes to be. Not superheros, but people who learn to make the right choice no matter what, and who leave the world better than they found it. That has become the true purpose and are the morals of these movies. That is why I highly recommend seeing it. But watch the others first if you haven’t. It makes the ending just that much better!