Yesterday, I was walking to my next class when I suddenly became aware of color. I know that might sound odd but I was taken by the color of a man's sweater as he passed. It was a color I didn't have an exact word for. At first I thought, perhaps lilac but no, there was too much red in it for that. Then I thought of mauve but it was pinker than that. I thought perhaps, it is closer to rose but there was too much blue in it for that. Whatever the name of the color was, it triggered a kind of cascade of taking in color, from the white dusty millers in a flower bed, contrasting with the red geraniums and purple-something-or-others, to the flashy royal blue shirt on a young man, the rose sweater on a woman bicycling, the blond hair with dark roots on another woman, a contrast in light and shadows, the incredible yellows in the trees lining the other side of the street or the burgundies, rich red wine colors and oranges against a background of green leaves from the autumn kissed beauty, and on and on. I was awash with the sensation of these colors and completely high on them:)
Later (after the CAW Student Organization - UW- Madison meeting) as I drove home in the dark and rain I had trouble concentrating on driving because the lights reflecting off street signs, and shining from street lights and head lights all flowed down the pavement in great moving streaks of light and I just wanted to watch them, follow them, let my mind move with them. I have never seen them look quite like that before. Sometimes they seemed watery in their rippling movement yet at other times they were like upside down flames. Luckily I am a pretty grounded person so I focused on the driving and very reluctantly let that other realm I was clearly moving into, go. Sigh... I wish I knew why it often happens to me when I am driving and don't have the leisure to just pull over and let it happen.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind