Kafka and the Traveling Doll

Today I want to share with you a true story by Franz Kafka that left a profound mark on my life. Enjoy it as much as that little girl who lost her doll, but never the love she felt for it.

At the age of 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), a man who never married or had children, was walking through a park in Berlin when he found a little girl crying inconsolably: she had lost her favorite doll. Together they searched for her, but they couldn't find her.

Kafka then asked her to come back the next day to continue the search. When the doll was still missing the next day, he handed her a letter. “written” by the doll, which said: “Please don’t cry. I went on a trip to see the world. I’ll write to you about my adventures.”

Thus began a tender ritual that lasted until the end of Kafka's life. At each meeting, he read her carefully crafted letters, filled with stories about the doll's travels and experiences, which the girl received with joy and wonder.

In the end, Kafka gave her a new doll (bought at a toy store).
—“It doesn’t look anything like my doll.”, said the girl, bewildered.
Then Kafka handed her another letter where the doll explained: “My travels changed me.” The girl, convinced, kissed her new companion and happily took her home.

A year later, Kafka died.

Years later, that girl—now an adult—found a letter hidden inside the doll. In it, Kafka had written:
“Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”

This is how you live life: accepting the losses, but embracing the new ways in which love resurfaces.

What does this story teach you? About loss, imagination, or Kafka's tenderness? I'm reading it carefully.

—Dr. Roch

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