REFLECTION
Senai Demirci
Peeling an apple or breaking a nutty shell, at first glance, seems to be
a simple and ordinary task. To me, this simple act may be taken as a starting
point for a vital reflection. Suppose that you are breaking a walnut shell.
Now you are attempting to open a hard, cold, numb and dumb door just to
reach a sweet and lovely country: walnut itself. That's why broken nutshell
pieces have become a kind of symbol for reaching bounty. Nevertheless,
breaking a nut shell is far away from the destructive meanings that the
word 'breaking implies. Breaking in this context is rather a delicate,
caring task. You should hit hard enough to break the shell, but softly
enough not to destroy the walnut itself. Otherwise, you have to be left
without bounty.
Peeling a fruit is an apparent and solid manifestation of the fact that
human being has a kind of position which may give him the right to sovereign
the world and those on it. May be that peeling an apple is more delicious
than eating it, because while we are putting the broken shell pieces away
or with a knife at hand cutting "unnecessary" parts of an apple away, we
are indeed exercising an evaluative and selective act that is rather specific
for human. This means that we have a right to label everything as "trivial"
or "important" or as "unnecessary" or "necessary". Thus in a simple task
like peeling or breaking, our own way of looking imposes substantial values
onto things. It turns out to be that human has an unquestionable and untouchable
jurisdiction over everything.
Nevetheless, the precise delicacy that we ought not to hurt during the
act of breaking or peeling implies real position of humanbeing over the
things and, by the way, proves that human himself is subject to an unquestionable
and untouchable jurisdiction. For instance, a harshly broken walnut primarily
imposes a specific value onto whoever exercised this act and shows brutality
of that man, not of walnut. Likewise a somewhat thickly peeled apple skin
reflects an unkind approach to the apple.
Our knife's delicate journey beneath the skin of an apple, indeed, a manifestation
of the delicate journey which we humanbeings are taking on this earth.
A slightly brutal knife touching cuts away only some necessary parts of
fruit, but it pushes humanbeing away from his respectful position within
the cosmos. This simple cruel act can impose onto us rather a low value.
Thus, at the same position where we are supposed to give value things,
we are given values.
As a matter of fact, the life we are leading can be summarized within our
approach to the walnut shell. At the same time we are exercising an important
authority over things, we are weighing ourselves at our own hands.
