Ugly mermaid

If a person loves you, you will become beautiful! (Hans Hofmann)

There is a completely contradictory, in my opinion, place In the Kaliningrad region — the Baltic spit — an elegant strip of land that is separated by salty waters from the mainland and has land borders with Poland.

I remember my first meeting with Spit in 2016. I saw dark overcast sky, wind, noise of trees and waves, cold air, lack of people. I felt sense of excitement and anxiety before something unknown and mysterious. This is a special place for me, a place for meditation and reflection. The Spit thrills and charms me at the same time.

The German writer and teacher Hans Hofmann, who lived in the territory of the Prussian Kingdom in the 19th century, has a fairy tale “the Ugly mermaid”. It tells the story of an ugly mermaid who suffered from her ugliness. One day old newt said to her: “If a person loves you, you will become beautiful!” One day, a mermaid got caught in a fishing net, and the fishermen severely beat her, because they were afraid. But one sailor felt sorry for the mermaid, took her to him, courted her, and then fell in love. And the mermaid was transformed.

I see the difficult fate of the Baltic spit in the story about this mermaid.  Like an ugly mermaid, the Baltic spit-at first repels with its appearance, unkemptness, and desolation. There are many abandoned houses there, historical buildings are gradually destroyed and lost. But you inevitably begin to love this place after some time of staying there, the ugliness turns into the beauty, as in the story of the mermaid. It is very difficult to explain these bipolar feelings, as well as love itself.

Drawing parallels with the shortcomings of human appearance, and sometimes with my own personal ones, I try to ponder and understand the phenomenon of the expression “love is blind”. I contemplate how this expression works in a person’s life and whether it can be applied to the area or landscape.