Color Outside the Lines
As a child, my grandmother’s advice to me was, “color outside the lines.” And although as a child I could clearly see the bold lines on the pages of the coloring book she gifted me, even then, it felt uncomfortable, risky, a bit silly and pointless, as she gently guided my hand with Crayola intact out across the boundaries of what had been created by the designers of the page.
I can’t really remember what or if I said anything in response to this little exercise in art. But I kind of remember thinking something like, “What’s the point of this Nannie? Isn’t it obvious that I’m supposed to color within the lines?”
I can also really only speculate about what she might have said in response to such a question. Remembering her as I do, it might have been some sort of Socratic retort like, “I don’t know J,” she sometimes called me this, “what do you think is the point of sometimes coloring outside the lines?” Even now as I try to think like that young boy, I imagine ideas like: to be more creative and expressive, to experience more freedom allowing my hand to go where it may, or even to be intentionally rebellious breaking the rules of the coloring book designers.
It wasn’t until many years later as a young man, long after my grandmother’s death, that I realized that one also colors outside of the lines sometimes because they have to, for their own survival and well-being.
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Jason LOVE LOVE this - wish I could have met your grandma - giving ourselves permission to create our own boundaries!!