Yesterday I went to the gym for my usual racquetball fix. Upon
entering the facility, there was this man talking to the manager about a picture
his grandchild colored for him. It was one of those pictures that came out of a
jumbo coloring book. The Grandad was very proud and he was making quite a big
deal out of young Van Gogh's work of art. I glanced at the portrait and noticed
that the child's choice of color was bright yellow. But what was just as
significant as the bright yellow crayon was that the child colored "outside the
lines". This child, like many children--color outside the lines because they
trust it is the right thing to do.
We all have colored outside the lines at some point even when we stopped
using crayons. Life prescribes that we stay within the lines and that certain
things are certain colors and it really matters. Staying within the lines
becomes a safe place because if you deviate you are asking for trouble. This
coloring within the lines becomes a microcosm of life and you realize there are
lines for everything: peer group lines, gender lines, sexual orientation lines,
status lines, prejudice lines, political lines, national lines, racial lines,
ethnicity lines, cultural lines, economic lines, religious lines, and the lines
go on and on and on--they never stop. We get to a point where these lines mean
more to us than life itself.
Had a dream about my Grandmother last week. In the dream, she came to my
house riding in a big bright yellow school bus. It was the kind of bus that Miss
Frizzle drove in "The Magic School Bus". There was no dialog between us but
her very being was like the big bright yellow crayon that young Van Gogh used in
the picture. In the dream I sensed she was still the wise old woman but she was
also a sunbeam. She wore two yellow bands on her wrist(I always do) and she had
a yellow cell phone(my cellphone cover is bright yellow). In the dream, she was
also an exuberant woman: fun-loving, free-spirited, energetic, optimistic, warm,
creative and playfully happy. It was as if she was reminding me to be yellow
and color outside the lines. Why not make today the day that you do just
that...COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES AND CELEBRATE THE BRIGHTNESS OF YOU. This is
Tuesday talk--I hope you heard me.
©2010 Theda Okona All Rights Reserved