Kafka and the Travelling Doll
“Kafka and the travelling doll” is a beautiful story, penned by Jordi Sierra I Fabra, about a fabled encounter by Prague-born author Franz Kafka. The beautiful illustration above is by Isabel Torner.
It was said that, one year before his death, Franz Kafka was walking through Steglitz Park, in Berlin. This was his daily walking route, but today took a different turn as he found a little girl crying heartbroken. She had lost her doll.
To calm her down Franz first helped look for the doll. Eventually realising that they would not find it, Franz told the little girl that the doll was probably away on a trip but that she should not worry, as he was a postman and the doll would have sent her a letter. He arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot, to deliver the letter.
With the same focus that he applied to all his writing, he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met the next day.
“Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.”
This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll.
For three weeks Frank focused exclusively on the doll’s letters and handed them on to the girl every day.
When the meetings came to an end, Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll, but an attached letter explained:
“my travels have changed me… “
Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into a previously unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll. In summary it said:
“Everything that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.”
Nobody has ever known who was that little girl and what happened with the letters.
Awarded with the National Award for Children’s Literature in 2007, Kafka and the traveling doll has already become a classic of the Spanish literature
It’s one of those beautiful stories that we don’t actually know is 100% true, or even carries any truth – though I feel in my heart that it does. But either way it certainly encapsulates a truly wonderful and talented man, whilst clearly giving us a very important lesson in life.
Too often we hold on to something so tight, or focus so intently on its loss, that we don’t notice all the the other wonderful aspects of life that are still there, or are waiting for us to grasp.
One sure fact of life is that everything changes, and we WILL lose objects and people that we love dearly. You can see it as a sad part of life, but if it wasn’t the case, we would never get to appreciate new things.
How many times have you thought your life was over due to losing something – a job, a partner, or something you owned – only to find, years later, that it lead you to more happiness than you had ever thought possible? The loss had opened the door for greater things.
This does not mean that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to mourn – it’s a very important part of the process – but we shouldn’t hold on.
For some more great reads, check out our Recommended Reading.
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