Jhony Ribeiro
The Dumbo taboo
Some weeks ago I broke a huge taboo in my life. I went to the cinema to watch “Dumbo”.

I could make a list of all the nicknames and jokes that I was the target because I had fanned ears, but I won't do this because I just want to write a post, not a book. Besides, by far the one who marked the most of my childhood was “Dumbo”

— Look there the Dumbo ears!
— Shake your ears Jhony, let us see you flying!

It was horrible, kids can be really mean sometimes, we all know that. And because of that I never wanted to watch the movie.

At the end of the last year, I did plastic surgery, an ear correction. A couple of months before the new “Dumbo” movie was in the cinemas, and then I thought, Why not? I must confess that I was a bit afraid.

Throughout the movie, I saw myself in Dumbo’s place. Even in the bullying situations that was very familiar to me, as the gesture that they did, stretching their ears looking at him. And in the moments of superation too. In the end, we had a lot in common, Dumbo and me.

The main message in the movie for me is something like: “What makes us different is what makes us strong”.

Just like him, my ears, for bad or good, made me strong too. They showed me the best and the worst in the people, they made me who I am today.

Thinking again, even if I could, I wouldn’t change a thing of what I’ve been throughout. At the end of the movie, Dumbo finished flying high, enjoying his freedom. I’m still flying down, but I know that one day, I will be flying as high as Dumbo.

So, have you ever broken a personal taboo, which one?
Apr 15, 2019 2:35 PM
Comments · 1
2
Aha! I too had the nickname Dumbo in school, because of my ears. But the boy who called me Dumbo was fat, so I did not care.
April 15, 2019