Do you remember Sita? How when Hanuman came to rescue her she refused, how she insisted that Rama come openly, defeat her captor Ravana openly? She had no desire for stealth, no desire for intrigue, and though Ravana could not touch her for the curse on his flesh, she remained captive until Rama came. Do you remember that she was tortured? That Hunaman asked her for permission to kill the women who had tortured her? Do you remember how she walked through fire to prove her purity, even though everyone knew of the curse on Ravana? How the people said the fire didn't matter because Fire was the brother of her mother, Earth? How Rama was as weak in the face of his people as he had been strong in the face of Ravana? Can you imagine the eyes of Sita when she refused another test? When she looked at Rama, a man she loved enough to die for, a man who was a god, and knew it was over? Can you imagine her eyes in that moment, as she asked her mother to take her back, to swallow her back into the earth? I think my eyes are like that now, leaving you.
Copyright © 2012 by Jason Schneiderman. Used with permission of the author.