The Velvet Ribbon, 2

Found the actual story and expanding on my last blog.

THE VELVET RIBBON by Ann McGovern.
Once there was a man who fell in love with a beautiful girl. And before the next full moon rose in the sky, they were wed. To please her husband, the young wife wore a different gown each night. Sometimes she was dressed in yellow; other nights she wore red or blue or white. And she always wore a black velvet ribbon around her slender neck. Day and night she wore that ribbon, and it was not long before her husband's curiosity got the better of him. "Why do you always wear that ribbon?" he asked. She smiled a strange smile and said not a word. At last her husband got angry. And one night he shouted at his bride. "Take that ribbon off! I'm tired of looking at it." You will be sorry if I do," she replied, "so I won't." Every morning at breakfast, the husband ordered his wife to remove the black velvet ribbon from around her neck. Every night at dinner he told her the same thing. But every morning at breakfast and every night at dinner, all his wife would say was, "You'll be sorry if I do. So I won't." A week had passed. The husband no longer looked into his wife's eyes. He could only stare at that black velvet ribbon around her neck. One night as his wife lay sleeping, he tiptoed to her sewing basket. He took out a pair of scissors. Quickly and quietly, careful not to awaken her, he bent over his wife's bed and SNIP! went the scissors, and the velvet ribbon fell to the floor and SNAP! off came her head. It rolled over the floor in the moonlight, wailing tearfully: "I...told...you...you'd...be...s-o-r-r-y!"
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I found the story in whole, or at least one version of it. Every version is slightly different in one way or another, as it is with most oral stories. I particularly like this one because it means a lot to me and it shows a good example of what being human means.

I like for one have always found the imagery of the black ribbon beautiful and interesting. It’s so simple, yet so mysterious. I can make connections from my own life to the story. For example, the main example, the girl has a secret that is better not known, but the husband “needs” to know it because he is curious. Very “Chasing Amy”. He has to know bad enough that in the end he ruins what they had together and kills her. As with “Chasing Amy” where the guy just ruins his relationship and loses the woman he loves, all because he has to know about her past.

This applies to me because, everyone has those things they don’t want known, or those skeletons in their closet that if they get out will ruin something. That’s why this story was so memorable to me. Not only does it warn us not to be over curious and just let some things drop, it also has a symbol for what will happen if the warnings of the story are forgotten, the black ribbon. Unlike the girl though if my ribbon is removed my head stays where it is and I don’t die. But what is released when the ribbon is removed can have some horrible effects on me, I know this from personal experience actually.

I actually even wear a black ribbon around my neck to remind myself that some things are better left unknown, and to honor this story which for some reason has stuck with me through life, even though I only think I heard the story once.

Also there is another personal meaning with the story. The guy in the story ended up hating the girl because of the ribbon and her secret. That’s not a good thing, but it does happen. Those are the types of people to avoid, and if in a relationship with get out of it, because if you don’t they will end up hurting you.
Human error; curiosity. Consequence; destruction as this story depicts.