Humans are upsetting a fragile balance that their own human ancestors established.

The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.

Besides, wouldn't it be wonderful if no one ever had to worry about the random cruelty of fatal illness or the woes of old age attacking them or their loved ones?

And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.

Everything born has to die, in order to make room for the future.

The mers were also designed to reproduce only at long intervals, in order to maintain the natural balance of the environment in which they were placed.

A clear conscience is generally the result of a faulty memory, not a faulty life.