Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl. She always wore a yellow ribbon around her neck. Her mother told her not to take it off no matter what. She grew up and fell in love. The boy loved her too and they got married. Years after their marriage the love waned and boy found the yellow ribbon annoying. He told her to take it off. Though still keeping her mother's words loud and clear in her head, to prove her unconditional love to the boy, she took off the ribbon---only to die as her head fell off.

 

I read of this story at 4. I didn't understand it at all then but the story made a print on my heart.----Every once in a while I think about it, sometimes for a fleeting second and sometimes for a few minutes. It is a sad story. I am sure the writer had something deep to tell in between the lines. But I wasn't quite sure what it was. Was it about something dark and private that's at the center of our identity but something we couldn't let other know?

 

Or that we could and we should keep sth just to ourselves? Or honesty is not always a virtue? And that we shouldn't demand this from even our closest relationships? Or we should always give each other some space? closesness is defined by the shorness of distance between two but also the vastness of space we give to each other so that we could be us but also be ourselves?

 

Do I have a yellow ribbon? How about you?