One Of These Is Not Like The Other

I regularly receive emails from the mother of the little Russian girl I tutored while in Korea. Sometimes I receive short memos about what they are doing, travels they have taken. More often than not, she simply forwards me pictures.

Today, after downloading the pictures of the first snow in Daegu, the little girl eating Dippin’ Dots, and their newly coiffured dog, I curiously studied the fourth picture. Four small, bronze busts, the type sold at cheap souvenir stands that line the pathways to the temples. Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, and, … Lenin?