The Unused Rollerskates

[JUSTIFY]Just want to share with everyone something I heard yesterday, which touched a chord somewhere deep inside. I was watching the film "Home Alone - Lost in New York". The little boy has got separated from his family and landed up in New York. He gets up to a lot of things on his own. One of his adventures takes him to Central Park where he meets an elderly woman feeding pigeons. The first time round, he gets frightened by her appearance. The next time, he psyches himself into accepting that she is harmless and he should not be scared of her. A friendship develops between the two of them and during one of their conversations, she tells him she has no one and no friends. She was ditched by someone she loved long ago and then decided not to love anybody ever again. He tells her that "that sounds kind of dumb" She says she wants to protect herself from any further heartbreaks.

It is at this point that the little boy tells her about his roller skates which he did not use, because he was scared he might spoil them. He kept them in a box and then outgrew them. So he ended up wearing the skates only once. The elderly lady replies that that is quite different. The little boy insists that there is not much difference.

I was really taken in by this comparison. Although it sounds really far out, at some level, one can understand the similarity. You may protect yourself from heartbreaks, but you may never have experienced the joy of loving. What use an intact heart then?

It brought back to me the memory of a very young man who was in love with a lady and wanted to marry her in spite of differences in nationality, culture and religion. He faced a lot of opposition from his family. During one conversation, he confided his story to me. I could only tell him to make sure, he did not land up hurting himself. This young man, almost 14 years my junior, told me something at that time, that I did not quite comprehend. He told me "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all". I accepted his argument, though I did not really understand the logic. If he knew what he was up to, that was enough for me. I had full trust in his being well grounded. It was only yesterday, in the face of the comparison between the protected heart and the unused roller skates, that the full purport of that piece of wisdom dawned bright and clear on me.

I did not understand what a much younger man was trying to explain to me. Finally a dialogue from the mouth of a little boy brought home the meaning to me. As they say "Out of the mouths of babes and infants".[/JUSTIFY]

 

Thanks Maalti for the prompt feedback.

 

thanks meenakshi.

 

Thanks Sunitha. Very well said. If one tries, one may succeed or fail (50:50 chances). But if one never tries the result is guaranteed - 100% failure.

 

Very true CL. It is easy to make no mistakes, because one never tried. But any effort runs an inherent risk of succeeding or failing. But the important thing is, one tried.