Flexibility

I have a little bit obsessive tendencies. Sometimes I find it hard to allow change in my daily life. I try to control too many things. My therapist told me that I should try to allow myself more flexibility, try to control a little less. Losing some of that tension would probably be good for me.

What’s important to me is that being flexible doesn’t mean you don’t have principles. I’m very afraid that once I have too much flexibility in my life, I will not able to achieve anything. Flexibility should be under a certain discipline, under guidelines to apply it. Then, allowing improvisation should give me space to breathe and enjoy living.

I wondered how flexibility can be visualised, because it’s very abstract. What would it look like?

Recently I’ve been watching too much Korean TV, and one day I wanted to eat Kimbap (what some people call Korean sushi).

Then the idea hit me. Who says you need to eat sushi with chopsticks? Maybe there are people who want to eat it with with knife and fork. Without a plate. Just using a napkin.

I decided to draw a still life. I wanted to draw it very precisely, because the arrangement of the objects, the composition, the use of colours, the light and shadows: that all reflects the discipline, the principle, the guidelines.

And then you have the Kimbap, on a napkin, with a fork. That represents flexibility. You don’t have to use chopsticks. You don’t have to use a plate. If you prefer a fork, go ahead. Enjoy the food. (But don’t use your hands, that’s where I draw the line.)

I hope the painting will be a reminder to myself. I hope that I will look at it, like I look at The best of you and it helps me be a better person.

PS: Humankind is a book that I read this year and found very inspiring, and “even niet” is a phrase of Dutch my therapist gave me as inspiration. It means “not right now” and is another way of letting go.

Something a bit old, but the ideas are still new