The picture above shows the tea spoons that my dad brought from Russia when I was little. The characters are taken from a famous Russian folk tale "The Giant Turnip". (The main spoon with a large turnip was unfortunately lost.) I have a great fascination with Russian decorative motives used in design of objects for every day use. It is very often inspired by the Russian tradition and folklore. Those little spoons are close to my heart because of their uniqueness and emotional character they have for me. However, on a day like today I thought that maybe the folk tale that inspired their design may have a quite powerful message for all of us New Yorkers.
AN OLD MAN planted a turnip. The turnip grew to be enormous. The old man started to pull the turnip out of the ground. He pulled and pulled, but couldn't pull it out. So he called over the old woman. The old woman took hold of the old man, the old man took hold of the turnip, they pulled and pulled, but couldn't pull it out. So the old woman called over the granddaughter. They still could not pulled it out, so they called the dog, then the cat and then the mouse and finally the mission was accomplished with success.
In New York City during the last few days, where still transportation is failing and being in the process of recovery and people are becoming frustrated, what matters is the collective effort to work hard to make things operate and to be patient and understanding that that it is not an easy process. Like in a fairy tale of the parsnip, one person could not pulled the vegetable from the ground, it was only possible because of the help of all the mentioned characters.