Response To ‘’The Hundredth Dove’’
Each and every one of us has had a moment in our lives where we have looked at something or someone and said to ourselves I want to be able to do that or be like them. Throughout the years of our lives many people begin to forget about their goals and things that they have wanted to do or see as a child but after reading the story ''The Hundredth Dove'' I think that you will again be reminded of whatever dream you may have and remember to never let your dreams escape you.
The story ''The Hundredth Dove'' starts with a man named Hugh whose job was to catch 100 doves that would be displayed at the king and queens great wedding feast. He first set out for his mission shortly after he had been told to catch the doves by both the king and queen themselves, the queen in whom Hugh had very much fallen in love with after looking at her beautiful black eyes and glimmering gold ring. Hugh was given 6 days to catch the 100 doves. On the first day he caught 20 nice blue doves and one beautiful white dove that had beautiful black eyes and a glimmering gold ring as did the queen. When seeing the dove Hugh was reminded of the queen and was very excited to catch the dove for the wedding yet when he got to the net the dove had escaped. Each day for four days Hugh would catch 20 blue doves and the one white dove yet every day the white dove would escape. On the fifth day much to Hugh's surprise there were only 19 doves in his net making him one short of one hundred. All the doves had been caught except the great white dove. Hugh knowing there were no more doves knew he must catch the last dove on the sixth day. On the last day when Hugh walked to his net he saw that the white bird was inside. While picking up the bird the bird pleaded with Hugh to let her go. At that moment Hugh realized that the dove in a way was the queen herself. While staring into the birds black eyes all this time he was really staring into the eyes of the queen that he also had been trying to catch in the last six days. Hugh then knew that if he were to kill the bird he would also kill his chances with the queen, yet knowing he needed the last dove, Hugh killed the bird. When Hugh arrived back at the palace the wedding had been called off and Hugh was never able to see either one of this two beautiful black eyed loves.
There is a great lesson to be learned after reading this story. When Hugh became so focused on his jobs in life he never took the time to realize that the queen is the real hundredth dove he had been looking for. So many times I look out and see people who talked about as kids of how they wanted to be president or a professional baseball player or whatever it may be and although they may have a satisfying life they still sometimes regret not pursuing the real things they wanted. The way I think of it is that each person only has one life. There is no written rule book of how you should live your life and every single person has their own different opinion as to how they would want their life to be like. Even if you pursue your dream and find that you were not as successful as you may have liked you will at least know that you tried your best and now have the knowledge that your dream may not be the best option for you to continue on with, were as if you do not pursue your dream you will always wonder what had happened if you had.
After Hugh found out that the wedding had been called off he decided to go off and live in the woods. Hugh never saw a dove again which symbolized that he never saw an opportunity to make his dream of being with the queen come true again. If you let an opportunity pass by you may never see your opportunity come back. So my advice would be to go out in the forest of life and find your own white dove and make sure to never let it pass you by.