What if the most profound thing you can leave behind isn’t a mark—but an absence?
Mikko Harvey whispers: “Please forget your scarf in my life and come back later for it.”
We spend our lives clinging to people, places, and identities as if they were lifelines. We believe if we let go—even a little—the thread will snap. So we hold tight. We suffocate the very thing we love. But Harvey’s line is a gentle, devastating nudge: What if you left a part of yourself behind on purpose? Not out of carelessness, but out of trust.
Think about it. A scarf is intimate. It carries your warmth, your scent, your comfort. To “forget” it in another’s life is to say, I trust you to keep my warmth safe. To “come back later” is to say, I believe this connection can survive the distance.
The Reason We Never Say Goodbye Properly
Some people you meet, and something happens.
Not romance. Not friendship. Something smaller — and stranger. A five-minute conversation that refuses to end when the conversation ends.
Mikko Harvey knew this. So he wrote a line disguised as nothing — a scarf, forgotten on purpose — and hid inside it the oldest human wish: let there be a reason to come back.
We do this constantly. We just don’t call it poetry.
The book we lend and never chase down. The playlist we send “for later.” The “let’s continue this sometime” we half-mean and half-hope for. We are all scattering scarves — small, deliberate forgettings — across the lives of people we aren’t ready to lose.
Because endings are unbearable. But unfinished — unfinished is alive.
Here’s the provocation
What if you stopped trying to make every goodbye complete?
What if, instead, you left something behind on purpose — a question unanswered, a thought half-said, a door not quite shut? Not because you’re avoiding closure. Because you’re choosing continuation.
The people who matter don’t need a perfect ending. They need an open loop.
So the next time you leave a room, a relationship, a city, a version of yourself —
Don’t tie the bow. Leave the scarf.
PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below
BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/
The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/
I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:
- https://profile.dailyhunt.in/SOHBStory
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sohb.story/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SOHBStory
- Spotify Creators: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/sobh-story/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3e4IAeGuwELReOcWJ4Csvj?si=1c1f6cb320644d30
- Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab0afb48-e3d2-4cf7-8279-7392d97d1bcd/sohb-state-of-the-heart-branding-story