i should never think.
This morning, I was thinking. Some of you just thought oh shit, here we go. But no, this isn't about anything personally related to me, it's something that Trent's probably said to me before. But it just hit me this morning, in a hard way. I was helping out with my stepmom's sunday school, and these kids are like... three, maybe four. After the story, it was time for them to color their pictures. There are three examples of how the situation played out. One was Evan. Evan is a sweet, cute little boy, and he colors excellently. Not a spot of crayon outside the lines. Problem? He was coloring the guy's skin green. Two was Jayden. Jayden give a fuck where the lines were, he was just scribbling everywhere, having some genuine fun with that crayon. Three was Emma. Emma was using all the right colors, and was very upset whenever she blundered outside the lines. Evan's dad was trying to convince him to use the "right" color for skin. Jayden's grandma kept trying to get him to just stay inside the lines. Emma was being praised for being so good at coloring.Hold on, hold the phone. It's just a picture. Why should they have to color in the lines, or use the right color? So what is Jesus has green skin in Evan's picture? Jayden's grandma kept threatening to get a new picture and make him start over, and everyone kept telling Emma what a good job she was doing. And when it comes down to it, she wasn't doing a BETTER job, she was just doing the more...acceptable job.
I loved Evan's picture. I wish I could hang it up in my room.
The point of this little anecdote is... why should we have to color inside the lines? I don't understand! But when I think about it, it's the mantra of kindergarten teachers around the world. Color in the lines, no people aren't that color... It's imagination murder at it's finest. Imaginicide, if you will. Little kids have this insane ability to see a picture that isn't there. They'll draw things we could never dream up if given a million dollars. They'll color people what they think they should be colored. And I think it's beautiful.
But it's beaten out of us. And not just with something like coloring... We are taught that dreaming and imagining is a silly, silly thing. We're taught that to get by in this world, you've got to get your goddamn head out of the clouds, and go to school, and get a good job, so we can pay for everything our hearts desire. But what if we don't WANT that?
Me, for example. On my phone, my banner says "la vie boheme" to remind myself that it's not all about material stuff. I want to live the life of an artist, and artists don't make billions and live in mansions. haha. I want to have some integrity. But the artist must also have an imagination, and in these days, it's so hard. SO HARD. Our parents are constantly trying to keep our feet on the ground at all times, to keep us safe, to keep us from having delusions...
All our parents ever wanted was for us to color inside the lines. I say that's not good enough.
Paint the picture you see, not the one they want you to see.
posted by Kayla @ 8:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home