I work in a newly remodeled office on the 17th floor of a building that looks out over all of Tel Aviv. The only flaw in the office is that one of the building's support columns stands in the middle of the room, dividing the office in an unnatural way. It is painted white and that drives one of my coworkers crazy.
"You need to hang some photos or something here," she instructs. at least once a week. Finally, one day this summer when her daughter was visiting, she told me her daughter would stencil something for me on the wall.
"With paint?" I clarified, staring in confusion at the 16 year old with stencils and brushes in hand, ready to go. "Won't I get in trouble?"
"Oh,thbbpt," she said. "Now move so we have space to work." And go to work they did and gave me a lovely flower about the size of my hand. I didn't get in trouble. But the rest of the column stayed perfectly white, including the side facing the woman who shares my office. This woman is currently ill and the general feeling in the office is that she also needed a stencil, to help cheer her up. One day another co-worker came in and said,"I'm going to paint a flower on the other side or your column, but I don't use stencils, so it will be a little messier."
I happened to be out of the office the last two days of last week. This Sunday morning, I opened my office door and then stopped in shock. The entire column had been painted with a mural of the country side, complete with little houses in the distance, birds in the sky, a field of sunflowers, and a fat, ripe pumpkin resting in the foreground. I couldn't dream of a more cheerful scene.
The secretary heard my intake of breath and called out, "What do you think?"
"I'm in shock," I replied. "What did our boss say?" How does someone respond to a 7.5 foot by 2 foot mural freehanded on the wall of a newly remodeled interior?
"He said it was beautiful," she answered.
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