Small Things Can Be Bigger Things

The Story Behind a Painting

It isn’t rare that people visit art galleries. But it is absolutely amazing the number of people who stop to appreciate artwork.

Myself, as an example, don’t really imagine how, why, where or who the painter drew. I just look quickly around the pictures in the room and search for the ones which catch my attention. But I have never stopped to think what the person in the picture was doing, and what it meant to the painter.

Actually, it would be exhausting and boring if we looked at painting by painting, one by one, and tried to imagine a story for each of them. People often think they need to go through all exhibitions in the gallery, but we’re not supposed to do so. That’s why these galleries are divided into levels and rooms, according to the year and technique used in the artwork.

The fact is, that we should start trying to find out what’s behind the painting, what the painter is trying to show us, not just walk randomly through the gallery, just because you paid a lot to get in. Just make your ticket worth it.

Rising Marigolds

Everybody has a story. And her story's scenery is a Yorkshire's house. In her garden you can count thousands of flower types, such as tulips, roses, edelweisses and daisies. And marigolds. Marigolds which shone during summer, had illnesses in autumn, died in winter. But they always blossomed again in spring.

 And so they kept living, year after year, until last winter. Last winter these flowers died, but didn't blossom in springtime. They didn't. Neither did she.

Nobody knew anything about her, about her life. And when she passed away, nobody looked after the garden. Nobody.

Today  the house is there, intact, just the way it looked  when she was alive. But there aren't any flowers anymore, just a vast meadow. And, in the middle of this meadow, there is a small, little, lonely and yellow flower. The last of the last flowers.

 It's a young marigold, trying to live, not to die, on this cold, white winter day.

Landmarks and Landscapes

“Can you hear me? I’m talking to you. Across the water, across the deep blue ocean, under  the open sky…”- Jason Mraz

Landmarks.

Empire State, Central Park.

The British Parliament, Thames River.

Sydney Opera House.

Christ the Redeemer.

Landscapes.

The ocean, the beach.

The river, the trees.

You can see them with your eyes opened

But those who get it with theirs closed

Can see beyond.

Beyond the earth, beyond the air.

They can see through walls, by memory, with their hearts.

They can be artistic

Or autistic.

But their hands reproduce much more than you can see.

They draw what you feel.

Beyond.

Beyond landmarks and landscapes.

Between Blackeberries an' Apples

Boy: “Hey Nono, look at the Xbox father gave me!”

Grandpa: “Don’t you have enough money to buy a dozen eggs? They’re truly cheap!”

Boy: “No, Nono! It’s an Xbox, not an ‘Eggs box’! Do you want to play with me?”

Grandpa: "Of course! Let's get some spoons and race who will arrive at the backyard first without letting the spoon with the egg fall from our mouths!”

Boy: “Uh, Grandpa, I’ve already said it’s an Xbox, not an eggs box. We play it with a sensor and with the TV.”

Grandpa: “Well, in my time TVs didn’t use to carry a spoon, but if yours can do it, it’s ok, it can take part of the race too.”

Boy: “Noooo, Nono, forget it, I’ll show you something in my MacBook from Apple.”

Grandpa: “How did an apple do a book about McDonald’s?”

Boy: “It’s a laptop from Apple, you know, Steve Jobs, Macintosh system?”

Grandpa: “Oh boy, you really don’t know A THING about apples! Let’s go to the market, I’ll show you what it is!”

Boy: “Nono, I know what an apple is. I’m talking about the BRAND Apple, whose creator was Steve Jobs!”

Grandpa: “Oh my god, what are children learning in school today? They don’t even know what an apple is! Have you ever heard the quote ‘an apple a day, keeps the doctor away?’”

Boy: “Yes, sir, mom always tells me that. That type of apple grows in trees, but my laptop comes from an Apple factory.”

Grandpa: “Son, I can certainly tell you people still produce apples in trees not in factories!”

Boy:”Uh! Ok, whatever, I’ll get my Blackberry.”

Grandpa: “Do you have only one? As I remember, we buy thousands of them in the market.”

Boy: “It’s my cell phone, Grandpa!”

Grandpa: “Do you call your mobile Blackberry? What a strange name for such a thing!”

Boy: “No, it’s the cell phone’s brand. Like, the mobile comes from a Blackberry factory.”

Grandpa: “Oh my, you and this story again! Fruits DO NOT come from factories!”

Boy: “Uh, just forget it Nono, I’ll talk to Sarah about our date.”

Grandpa: “What’s wrong with it? Did you have to divide it with her? Such a small thing? I’ll go and talk to your father, you really need more pocket money! You can’t even buy some eggs and some dates!”

Boy: “There’s nothing wrong with my pocket money Nono, Sarah and I, we'll go to the cinema, have a date."

Grandpa: “Wait, you’ll go to the cinema and then to the market, to buy a date? Can you please get me some bananas too? I’ll ask your mother to bake a pie!”

Boy: “Whatever, don’t worry, I’ll buy some bananas. Bye Nono!”

Grandpa: “Bye! And don’t forget your date! We’re in season now!”

Empty Chairs and Empty Tables

Summer.

Crowded airports, crowded swimming pools,

crowded rollercoasters’ lines.

But empty schools.

Midnight.

Crowded night clubs, crowded bars,

Times Square crowded.

But empty parks.

War.

Crowded battle fields, crowded hospitals,

crowded refugee camps.

But empty streets.

Empty tables at that empty restaurant,

where they used to meet.

Empty chairs at that empty table,

where they used to sit.

Empty chairs because they aren’t there.

And they will never be again.

Alone in this world, now I am, no more friends.

They’re all dead.

Tearjerkers

A tearjerker is a film that makes us cry, gives us goose bumps and lets us cry our hearts out. We can burst into tears or get misty-eyed, but everybody likes a tearjerker: teenagers, old people, adults, girls… and even boys!

Here’s a list of movies that can (and possibly will) make you cry:

The Little Princess

A girl who lives in India returns to England, her homeland, with her dad. He's in the army and has to fight in the war. The girl goes to the school where her mother studied and her father suffers an accident while fighting. He doesn't remember anything about his little corageous girl, who shows every girl is a princess.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

A boy who is really close to his dad loses him in the 9/11 attacks. To find something that will bring him closer to his dad again, he searches, in the huge New York City, for someone called Black. Will he find this mysterious person and discover the secret of an old key?

The Blind Side

Michael is an African- American boy who is adopted by the Tuohy Family. He starts going to a "white people" school, but he gets bad grades. Mrs. Tuohy hires a private teacher, to help Michael. Then, he discovers that he plays soccer very well. Now, he can get a scholarship to Ole Mis. Unfortunately, he has to get better grades to get it.

Friends

“But friendship is precious; not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.” – Thomas Jefferson

Some people say they have lots of friends. But we can count real friends on our fingers, only two or three.

The sporty guy who is always surrounded by people but he can’t trust anyone. The boy who makes fun of others that are alone during break time. The “perfect girl” who is followed by the other ones and that say she has many friends probably wants everyone to like her. That’s not friendship. It is people just playing their pre-determined roles.

The boy that seems to be shy quietly sits near another one and asks his opinion about the sports techniques of last evening’s football match. The intelligent girl that seems to study the whole time passes most of her afternoon talking to her best friend. They have a true friendship.

Being a friend doesn’t mean to take thousands of photos of you both or to have matching necklaces. Friends fight, cry, laugh, and make fun of each other. They get in trouble together. They are ALWAYS TOGETHER.

Never forget that “friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’” - C. S. Lewis.

The Hand Poem

A problem is just a solution waiting to be discovered

“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution” – Norman Vincent Peale

When you have a problem, once you know its solution, it is easy to solve it.

An example of this is Maths. Once you know the formula you have to use, all your doubts can be solved. You just have to add here, divide there, and you’re done.

And when you don’t know how to calculate it, you just have to put some information and other knowledge together to answer the “X” of the question.

But sometimes your problems don’t have a formula. Actually, they aren’t even Maths problems. I mean, there are social problems too, such as going to a new school.

It is hard to sit next to people you don’t know, to spend break time alone. And it is even harder to make friends. But always remember that people have faced and will face the same problem as you. And never forget that there are others facing it.

Don’t give up – “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” (Albert Einstein). Free your mind and start to think in a different way. You just have to discover how to solve it – a  problem is just a solution waiting to be discovered.