Coloring Outside the Lines

I am he as you are he, as you are me and we are all together. 

It’s a perfect evening. I’m sitting on our balcony, looking across the bay to the Gulf of Mexico. I’m sipping a perfect martini made with Vodka from France and Scotch from Scotland, garnished with Olives from Spain that are stuffed with Blue Cheese from Denmark, all contained in a beautiful, pewter-stemmed Martini Glass handcrafted in Italy.

Down below, at the Tiki bar on the Bay, a quartet is playing bossa nova rhythms from Brazil that soothe your soul...or, I guess I should say, my soul. I’m enjoying my perfect martini, as I do every Thursday, typing away on my iBook, made in China, comfortable in my deck chair from the Philippines.

After Martini-Time, it’s burger night – the Muse makes the best burgers ever – made with turkey breast from the U S of A, served on buns from Germany, garnished with stuff from half of the countries in Europe. Our wine tonight is from France, because what goes better with burgers? And we enjoy our dinner in a room filled with art from California and New York and England and Italy and Africa and South America and nothing from Canada yet, but that will happen...

My point, and I’ve tried to make this as innocuous as possible, is obvious. AMERICA IS A MELTING POT and we’re all the better for it, and once certain people start editing, you can no longer have a say in what’s editable and what isn’t.

So, if someone’s fine with just Wonderbread and butter, and judging by what I see, many are, block the rest. Block the flavor, block the special, block the music, block the sports, block the arts, block the crafts, block the memories of your grandparents and their grandparents. It isn’t just martinis I’m thinking about...that’s only Thursdays... it’s traditions amd habits and things we take for granted that touch every aspect of our lives. 

It’s always good, I think, to remember that in the world of art and color theory, white is the collection of all color. It is made up of everything and is the reflection of everything.

Think about that for a moment. Please.

““I prefer living in color.”  

– David Hockney