That very strength hidden in vulnerability
- mhajieva
- Sep 5
- 2 min read
Sometimes you prepare for the hardest exam questions, and yet fail on the simplest tasks… And when people describe me as “strong,” brave, competent, charismatic, refined, having a backbone, and so on, for sure, it’s nice to hear. But on the other hand, it’s sometimes painful when people idealize my image, overlooking the fact that I’m just an ordinary person too.
I also struggle with life’s questions, which perhaps come much easier to them than to me. Yet they fail to recognize their own value in this.
And in this example, I would like to be not necessarily strong, but happy.
Overall, this dynamic reminds me of the image of Achilles or, what seems to me even deeper, the story of the Div in Azerbaijani folk tales. For despite his invincible strength, Achilles has his weak spot — symbolically, his heel.
And with the Div, it sounds even more intriguing. The Div is generally described as strong and invincible as well, but in this case, a mighty villain. Yet he has one weak spot — his soul, which is kept in a glass vial, separate from his physical body, unlike Achilles.
In different versions of the Div’s story, this sometimes appears as a bird in a vessel, rather than the vial itself. By killing the bird, the main character of the tale takes the Div’s soul (life).
What I notice in this description is that no matter how “strong” we may seem at times, we are all living parts of nature, dependent on something, if not on each other.
But a question arises for me: what if, instead of killing the bird, you protect it, comfort it, love it? What if you see a smile and compassion on the face of the Div — the “villain”? In other words, one can wield power over the Div not by taking his soul, but by preserving his life. Perhaps even the Div himself would be surprised at how much he needed this.
After all, sometimes true strength is not in victory, but perhaps even in defeat or in vulnerability.
Artwork:
"Achilles - The Warrior God" by Sumit Bansode
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