Red thread

Welcome back! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? After summer holidays we’re back in reality of books, exams and never-ending stress. Even though it’s not my first year at university and I had five years to get used to harsh “back to school” reality on October… I still feel bad during first two weeks of classes. Then I start to work hard as usual and everything is back on track.

An academic year, those more or less nine months of work, for me is (like I mentioned before) a period full of stress. A simple human being needs some kind of relief, doesn’t it? For some of us, it’s sport or some other kind of physical effort, for others – reading books, watching movies, listening to music… I am that “music is the greatest art” type. Listening to it is for sure relaxing and moving. But in order to fully escape the reality, I need more. So what do I do? I read. But not just anything. The legends and fairytales. Those are my favorites. Logically implausible, beyond belief, incredible, fascinating. But the most important of all – so different from reality. When you’re tired of everyday life, disillusioned by society and world in general, the legends and fairytales are the best cure. To believe, just for a moment, in something unbelievable. To feel the magic and allow your imagination to free itself and fly through words that are too fantastic to be true. That’s why in this post I would like to share with you one of the legends I find interesting, compelling or just … lovely. It’s a legend of a red thread.

               It’s and old Japanese legend according to which everyone's pinky finger is tied to an invisible red string that will lead him or her to another person with whom they will make history. “An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break” says ancient story. This legend, so much more aesthetic than that of the twin souls, occurs when it is discovered that the ulnar artery connects the heart with the pinky finger (which is the same reason why in many cultures promises are made by two people crossing their pinkies). The thin vein running from heart to hand extends through the invisible world, to end its course in someone else’s heart. Of course, many connect that legend with the “soulmates” love stories, but it does not limit itself only to couples. It speaks of a type of arterial ramification that emerges from a finger toward all those with whom we will make history and all those whom we will help in one way or another. For the ontological imagination, the myth of the red string is a way to understand our itinerary of encounters as a predetermined plot where couples’ relationships, the intimate brushes against someone, and all the little stories we crisscross with others are neither random triumphs nor accidents, but part of a scarlet tapestry whose threads were given to us when we were born but which we knit ourselves.

               Some versions of that story add that the red string is knitted and placed on pinkies by an old man who lives on the Moon. He visits Earth every night in order to find two spirits who has something to learn from each other, and when he finds them he ties a red thread to them so they find their paths. Accepting this, or at least considering it, is a secret consolation: it is as if our steps — stubborn as they may sometimes seem — knew the route and geography of our multiple amorous destinations, and therefore there were no “slips” or poor decisions. The time may not be right; the circumstances might challenge the strength of our bond.  What remains, is that people who are destined to be together or create some kind of history together will find a way back. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to meet this person, or how long you spend apart. Even if you live on other sides of the world, the thread will stretch far enough that your hearts stay connected.

               You may say that the destiny is not true. That people meet others by accident. That love is just a matter of getting used to someone. But that legend allows me to believe, at least for a moment, that those different, sometimes weird encounters in our lives are not accidental. And that the love, as I always imagined it, true, deep and unbreakable, really exist.