Here was my first vision of the morning, standing on the northwestern bluff of the island, as I so often do, and gazing upriver. Not a bad sight to inaugurate my day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the air was clean and crisp and redolent of the earth in a good healthy way. The moment was a wordless poem, a paean to the beauty found where earth and sun and sky and river all unite harmoniously, and someone like me is standing by to recognize, savor and acknowledge it.
And if that were not beauty enough, I had only to travel a few steps in a southeasterly direction to behold this floral exclamation point. What was that line from Alice Walker's novel: "I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it." I can safely say that I did not piss God off this morning. At least, not during my stroll around the island.
I know I've featured a fair number of feathered locals in my blog, but this fellow was begging to be photographed, so I happily obliged. Where were his friends and family, I wonder. Ah, but he could ask the same about me, couldn't he? We all require a bit of solitude, don't we, Daffy? I left him to his own devices and turned to face what I found to be both an attractive and suggestive image, set into the side of the riverbank.
For the writer ever in search of a rich or apt metaphor, the universal image that all can appreciate, that of the staircase will do as well as any other. In the same category as bridges and conveyances, the image suggests a place neither nor there but between two places, where one must choose: here or there, up or down, in or out? In addition to representing the choice, it also represents the means of getting from one place to another. Thus, it first compels us to be decisive, then supplies the means by which we may carry out our decision. Aren't we always on the staircase? Don't we perpetually face choices, alternatives, decisions that we can, should, or must make? From that perspective, life itself is a staircase, is it not? The only question is: are you heading up or down?
As I mounted the stairs (I was heading up), and continued my perambulation, my eye climbed a figurative stairway to the crown of this house, near the end of my walk. My eye was drawn not only by the attractive design, resembling rays of the sun, or the spokes of a wheel, but also by the color. Are you sensing a color theme emerging in this morning's post?
Lest there be any doubt, allow me to offer the final image of today's post, a house I see every day as I leave for work, and which always pleases me with the color Ms. Walker (and/or God) would not have me ignore. So why, of all days, should I choose to notice and comment upon this color today? Well, since you ask, last night my lovely companion began painting our bathroom purple. Inspired by her actions, I sat at my desk and began painting a picture featuring the same color. Ergo, you might say I had purple on my mind this morning.
And so, in honor of the color purple, and so as to avoid pissing anyone off, I leave you with this image. I have a doll's head sitting in a dish--don't ask why--and this was my attempt to render it in oils. This is just a beginning, and the painting has a long way to go, but every journey begins with that first step, no? Whether you are climbing a staircase, descending one, crossing a bridge, or being ferried by boat or car, plane or train, to a place where new experiences await. (And make no mistake, they always await.)Life flows on, in and around us—filled with choices, means to act upon them, and the consequences of those actions. Choose, act, and live!
D.E.S.
No comments:
Post a Comment