Today my day was filled with blacks and golds, reds and grays. It was small moments that were vivid with color...and taste, if thoughts and memories were colors or tastes. If they were a food, they would have been candy, licorice and butterscotch or meat and potatoes. Yet the big moments have no color at all, no texture, no taste. They are oatmeal...or mush. And they will not last in my mind, my memory.
In one case they are the gates of Barnard. (OMG Barnard College! - the legendary...am I really here?) The gates are shiny black with peaks of gold. They scream of both protection and promise, but they gleam, both black and gold with pride and promise. They are beef wellington. They are protection guarding delicious expectation.
In another case the pictures are fiery red, but the red of solid brick, not that of fire engines. The structure that is Teacher's College is a fixture, a bastion, a landmark. Regal, dignified, a fortress. It is the meat and potatoes of education and instruction. It is solid, protective and still contains substance and promise. Intellectual challenge.
And yet, I find that I'm pleasantly surprised by the rats. Really? Subway rats are cute! They didn't look big and nasty...and then outside the gates of Columbia today stood two huge, gray, inflatable rats. Ten feet tall. They swayed a little as the wind blew against them. What a surprise! Why were they there? They were like meringue...white (or gray) and fluffy...and yet not sweet and somewhat tasteless. Both comical and unexpected.
But in spite of this, I feel encased by brown, the color of cardboard in the cage of the routine, trapped...cramped for space, confined. It's graham cracker without sugar. It's rye toast.
Yet the sounds are magical. They are a kaleidoscope,the spectrum, a calliope of sound....they are sirens, and carousals, and children and traffic. birds chirping. Both background and song.
It's the colors that I remember that shade the days. How do I make my small moments bigger and my big moments smaller? How do I give color to the black and whites and shades of gray to give color to my days?
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