The curve shortening flow is the mean curvature flow for 1-manifolds evolving in 2-manifolds. In the cases that the curve is embedded, or that it is evolving in the plane, the behavior of the flow is known in (more or less) detail. I will provide an introduction to the flow and these historical results, and then outline a generalization (due to Paul T. Allen, Katharine Tsukahara, and myself) of a theorem by Gerhard Huisken on the long-term behavior of curves with fixed endpoints.