The Red Shoes

Appearances can be decieving...that's one of the lesson learned in The Red Shoes. We learn that differences can/should be celebrated, that there is often more to something than meets the eyes. My five words for what I learned from this unbelievably moving, heartwarming, story were:

misplaced treasure escape or rescue?

What does this mean you ask?

This summer I had the pleasure of enjoying a cruise on the Baltic Sea. We visited the port city of Gdansk, Poland. As we toured the city with a WWII survivor, a worker who fought for Solidarite (and had the scars to prove it!) we entered the market place. Our friends had just purchased a new home in Montreal and wanted to check out the antique stores. I had my reservations. I, being Jewish, with relatives from Poland who escaped the Holocaust was very uneasy. I expressed my concerns as I said to my friends that I was afraid to find "my family's treasures" in the antique stores. We continued. We entered the first antique store and lo and behold as I looked around I saw a silver Passover seder plate engraved with the Hebrew words for the six items we use to commemorate the Jews' escape from Egypt during the Passover seder. I was shaken. I showed the plate to my husband and our friends and proceeded to exit the store. Upon returning to the ship that evening I could not wait to share my "find" and my unease with my mother. I called her at home in Montreal and recounted the story and my horror at viewing "my family's treasure". My mom, who was never a teacher but remains the best educator I've ever known, exclaimed, "WOW! So I hope you bought it! You did, didn't you?" When I sheepishly replied that I ran out of the store, that I had felt the need to escape she said that next time I should think about buying it to "bring it home where it belongs!"

The Red Shoes:
...perception
...different ways of seeing
...the whole story
...understanding differences
...or simply:

misplaced treasure escape or rescue?