How can we keep living when we lose someone we love?
The Inuit story Raven and the Whale, retold by Laura Simms, tells us of the world’s first tear and how the world began healing at the same moment. In this story, Raven, who is both a god and a bird with a man inside, enters the belly of a giant whale where he meets a beautiful girl. He desires to take her out of this whale and marry her even though she says that she is the heart and the soul of the whale. Due to his desire, everything begins to change.
People consider this story different from other stories since it shows the way Raven responds to tragedy and overcomes it in his own ways. As Raven cuts the string connecting the girl and the giant whale, the whale dies and the girl follows. Raven, for the first time, feels great sadness and regret, and realizes that all life will end one day as he lands on the sand beside the body of the whale and cries. He begins to dance and sing for weeks and weeks until his heart is smooth. Therefore, this story reminds us that healing begins when we have the courage to face our grief.
I asked a grade 12 friend what she felt after reading it. “I was impressed though Raven feels still suffering, how Raven tries to live and gradually heal without hiding his grief and sadness, and takes it as a lesson that all life in the world is born and dies. It helps me to think of some ways if I ever happen to face this kind of situation in the future,” she said.
In life, we sometimes face what we do not expect or want to happen just as in Raven and the whale. However, rather than hiding your feelings and being trapped in grief, it is better to face it with courage and keep moving forward by overcoming it in your own ways, which could be anything.