I am just beginning to realise how heavy is the custodian's responsibility. This is what comes of being nice to people.
One of my students, Mr N (N for 'not his real name'), has entrusted to me half a dozen sizeable paintings for safe-keeping. Why he has done this is not entirely clear. Perhaps he sees them as payment in kind for services rendered. Not that I have rendered any services, apart from listening to him read, and trying in an ad hoc fashion to correct his pronunciation in the pursuit of better English.
Mr N is a Korean national. He has been in jail for a long time. That is our context. I teach. He learns.
Each morning, before the inmates are released from the yards he strips down and exercises, rain, hail, or snow. Then he meditates. I have seen him sitting in sleet, shirt off, legs crossed in the lotus position, or else in full splits, sago snow in his hair.
'Aren't you cold?' I asked him once.
'Yes. Very cold. But after warm all day.'
Mr N is 65 years old. He is a fine painter and potter in the classical Korean style. My colleague, the ceramics teacher, has told me that Mr N has, intuitively and independently of current theory, arrived at a place that is concomitant with the cutting edge of contemporary ceramic arts practice. I take this to mean he is a good potter, and indeed the pots he makes seem mighty fine to me. Likewise the paintings.
Mr N's English is poor, but his wit is sharp. The idea of art seemed to be a way to stimulate discussion and begin tackling his otherwise general lack of English. In jail is art enough to make life worthwhile?
'Art making beautiful every day,' he says.
The other teachers have had no luck with him and have passed him on to me. They report a level of arrogance.
'He has issues with women,' they say. This may be true, given his age and cultural background, but I have not detected it. Another thing they have against him is that Mr N has, in the past, accused them of stealing his paintings. They have issues with vexatious allegations. Their frustration may well stem from the fact that he does his own thing and is not interested in what they tell him.
I see Mr N once a week. As part of our lessons I bring in