A father had only one son, but as the boy grew older, he began making one bad choice after another. He stopped listening, treated people carelessly, and seemed unmoved by the pain his actions caused.
The father tried everything he could think of—conversations, warnings, patience, and discipline—but nothing seemed to reach him.
Finally, the father placed a large wooden post in front of their house.
“From now on,” he said, “every time you do something cruel, dishonest, or hurtful, I will hammer a nail into this post.”
Days passed, then weeks. Each time the boy insulted someone, broke a promise, or caused harm, another nail was driven into the wood.
Before long, the post was covered with them. There was hardly an untouched spot left.
One afternoon, the boy stood in front of it and stared at what he had done. Seeing so many nails made something inside him change.
His father came to stand beside him.
“Now we’ll do something different,” he said. “For every sincere apology, every kind act, and …More
In 2016, a 17-year-old named TJ Khayatan walked into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and set his glasses on the floor.
Then he stepped back and waited.
Khayatan had been walking through the galleries, taking in work that carried the full weight of institutional approval. A question was forming in his mind.
What was actually doing the work here? The object itself, or the frame around it?
He chose a spot near a gallery wall. No placard. No explanation. Just a pair of eyeglasses, resting on the hardwood floor of one of the most respected contemporary art museums in the country.
He pulled out his phone.
Within minutes, visitors stopped. They stood over the glasses with their heads tilted slightly, hands clasped behind their backs. The posture of serious looking. Several crouched down to study them more carefully. Others raised their phones and photographed the glasses from careful angles.
Nobody asked whose they were. Nobody called a guard.
Khayatan posted the photos to Twitter. The …More