Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.
Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, “Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.”
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel.
“Vanity, please help me!” “I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.
Sadness was close by so Love asked, “Sadness, let me go with you.” “Oh… Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”
Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way. Realizing how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who helped me?” “It was Time,” Knowledge answered. “Time?” asked Love, “But why did Time help me?”
knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because only time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.”
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REVIEW:
“Love and Time” is such a thought-provoking and delight to read story where human emotions such as happiness, sadness, knowledge and love are personified. The main characters of the story might not be humans but something that makes one ‘Human’. Writer’s attempt to capture the essence of human sentiments in such an experimental narrative, should truly be praised.
The story is in a third-person omniscient narrative with moderate dialogues among the characters. Yet, us readers, can truly connect with the story because of the familiarity that we have with these characters. Writer’s skillful choice of ‘emotions’ as the conveyor of the story smoothly blends with the theme that the writer is trying to demonstrate.
In the beginning of the story, these “personified emotions” live in an island which is about to sink. However, Love is the only feeling that stayed there till the end and all other feelings built a boat and escaped from the island. When compared to the real life, one can see how certain emotions do not last forever and are constantly changing. But our love for someone keeps growing perpetually.
Through the story, writer attempts to remind us of the different emotions through which one passes and its value in our life. Sometimes (or many a times) we fail to recognize the worth of Love which usually gets neglected comparatively to other overpowering emotions as shown in the story.
At the end, it is the Time which saved Love from sinking. As the time passes, we realize the value of love and how important it is in our life. Writer ends the story with a powerful statement “Because only time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.”