You will notice a mirror placed next to Frida Kahlo's self-portrait.
When you visit the Museum of Modern Art , you will notice a mirror placed next to Frida Kahlo's self-portrait. Apparently, the curators of the museum don’t want you to just look at the most iconic figure of self-portraits and move on. They want you to pay attention to Frida, who held on to life no matter the conditions, was progressive, shared through her art, and had an original identity. I think they would even recommend that you look at the image of yourself in the frame next to her from a different perspective and reveal your true self-portrait. 💙🤗 ✨️✨️ I have a Japanese friend who lives in Turkey. I really enjoy chatting with Tomoko because she loves to talk by telling stories. The metaphors she uses, stories from a different culture that I’ve never heard before, the strange sounds and intonations she adds from her own language while talking, and her narrative that reinforces what she wants to say when combined with that rhythm, really interest me. Since she has lived here for a long time, she is familiar with our culture and is generous in reflecting her own culture, I feed off of both our commonalities and our differences. She begins to tell the story; "A samurai came to his temple one winter day and made a request: "I am sick and poor and my family is starving, please help us, my lord." The life of the priest in the temple was also full of hardships and he had nothing to give. Just as he was about to send the samurai back, he remembered the statue of Buddha in the meditation hall. He went to the statue, tore off the golden halo from its head and gave it to the samurai. "Sell this, it will last you a while," he said. The astonished but helpless samurai took the halo and went away. One of the priest's disciples shouted, "This is an insult to my lord Buddha. How can you do this?" "Insult?" said the priest, I only made the mind of the Buddha, which was filled with love and compassion, useful, so to speak. In fact, if he had heard about this poor samurai, Buddha himself would have cut off a limb for him." ✨️✨️ This very simple but very thought-provoking story reminds me of the principle in our ancient teachings; "The hand that gives is better than the hand that takes. What you don't give goes, what you give comes with you." If I go back to the story; doesn't it say that even if you have nothing to give, take a second look, you will always find something to give? What I mean is, don't you think this is a matter of attitude? In other words; Even if you can't give anything, you can at least smile. Even if you can't give anything, you can at least sit with that person sincerely, listen to their voice, hold their hand. Who knows, maybe the real issue isn't about giving anything, it's all about being able to give...👋 Author: Onur Küçükkaramıklı (Quote)
