My Reflections 1

The Small Key: A Reflection

by: Claire C. Bayon 

 The story of The Small Key by Paz Latorena is a run of the mill story where everybody could relate about because it merely takes place in a society. It was about a man named Pedro who has a notable past with her first wife that he still kept her garments in a trunk which the small key can only unlock it. But by the time her second wife, Soledad, saw the small key in his coat; it became the source of her jealousy. She wondered why her husband was keeping that key for a long time. It made her feel sick. Without knowing the reason, she decided to open the small trunk with the small key and burnt the garments found in it. Too late, Pedro would have known the incident. He was trying not to be angry with his wife. He hoped it would be just an interlude that could be recalled without bitterness.

So much less, the author might have the same experience with Pedro. As we all know that it can be conveyed in a literature. Paz would have thought of the society. How it could be better? Where complications do starts? And what can we do for resolutions?

Pedro portrayed an ideal manner of a husband that is caring, understanding and most of all, loving. Those characteristics are known rare in the community or should I frankly say, mostly with men nowadays.  He might yearn to inspire them to promote harmonious relationship in a community. Because he knew that success fathers from the smallest unit of the society-that is family. In the family, it includes yourself-your personality. He emphasizes how to accept things which we may find as exasperating.

It would have been nice to know the ending of the story in details. Soledad would have repented; perhaps she would even try to convince him that she had done it because she loved him. But the account is enough to tell us that people needed to be understood by others for the reason that they have their own principle we may repudiate. Understand them as far as we could do for we might get the same. As the golden rule says, “Do not do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you.”

What he meant is a good lesson for us to grasp, for he knew that time cannot tell if we could encounter the similar thing. Learn to pardon a person at the same time, for forgiveness heals a weary heart and gives comfort that’s naturally refreshing. It’s wonderful to see that we’re living harmonically with everybody in this imperfect world.

-CCB