the theme reaches a fork in the road

Alas, my theme on this journey has already reached a fork in the road as I realize that color can be more than just light reflected by an object. It can also be light reflected on a subject.

It is morning. I sit breakfasting quietly in the dining room of the B&B where I am staying, my thoughts my only companions. My mind wanders with the plans for the day, my gaze fixes uncomprehendingly ahead of me, staring without seeing out the open window to the lit building beyond. After several moments of meandering thoughts, I focus and register what my eyes have already found - a building with a decidedly crooked column supporting the overhanging roof to a porch.

Now, the Moravians were certainly most reliable builders, being of German descent and handy with tools, clever before their time. And while they built these structures, solid and true, not even they could foresee a future such as ours that might gradually but definitely wear away the edges of their craftsmanship. Buildings age. They crumble. They fall. But they bear the hefty burden of past, future, shelter, solidarity, and home. And on this particular morning, this particular building with its one crooked and bowed column, brought a seemingly simple question to my mind: can a crooked column still bear weight?

Within this question lies a most poignant answer, and brings me once again to my forked path. Yes, I believe a crooked column can bear weight, so long as it has additional support (extrapolate from that any metaphor you like). This column, obviously not as straight and tall as it once was, could be seen as a failure. But rather, I look to the left and right of it and see instead two others, much the same as their brother but for their obviously more vertical orientation, bearing equal weight and thus perhaps even ensuring that the center does not fall. And that, to me, is the color of cooperation.

What one cannot do is perhaps possible with the help of two or three. Where one falls short, the others use their strengths to assist. And where one cannot bear the weight, the others can shoulder some of it, lightening the load.

And thereby, my theme takes a philosophical turn....prepare not just for color, in its truest form, but for the question of color and all it may represent.