a color story: purple lake?

I was in the kayak. Usually, this moment would be a time for self-reflection but I was looking for the large carps in the water — they appeared on the shoreline from previous visits. My brother initiated this trip as I tagged along. We both know the most difficult part of the kayaking was just getting the boats on the water. Everything else was smooth sailing. Every time I joined the gentle lake waves, I always thought, “why don’t I do this more often?” So from then on leaving the shoreline on the kayaks, I expected diminishing returns from the act of kayaking.

There must have been build-up stress or energy because I wanted to travel further than before. It could be my search for finding those large carps or the stress release from paddling prolonged the journey like an animated driver pressing the nitro button in his decked-out car. Either or, when I reached the swamp area of the lake, the trailing kayak behind me wasn’t visible. He must have kayaked back to the start point already. But as I paddled back, I saw him stationed with his head angled up in the sky- he was transfixed by the purple sky and water. He described it as a purple grape Koolaid.

Just before the kayak, I wrote the color manifesto. I smiled at the idea that mother nature read the color manifesto and decided to display a gorgeous sunset - maybe in an alternate universe. Or the sky usually displayed a purple set from time to time. It was us who needed the eyes. As I looked back on that special natural color display, my whole surrounding was purple. We were inside the purple Koolaid. Everything was so sweet — pun intended.

We returned back to our start point and returned the kayaks to the racks. Naturally, we talked about the highlight of the event -not the kayaking activity, not the lack of fish, but the color in the sky. I felt like the color manifesto affected my brother's perspective. The manifesto was working? As we both enjoyed this color phenomenon, I wondered if other people could experience the color-related paradigm shift.

More color more life? Could the message be delivered in a virtual community? Most of my color moments have been outside. Could that experience transcend with words?

I thought about Ron Swanson in the show, “Parks and Recreation” and his mundane attitude towards art suggested something. He felt repulsed against the idea of a gallery full of landscapes. He quickly remarked that it's better just to go out and see it for free. Interpretations were all derivatives of the true designer, mother nature.

I agreed with Ron Swanson’s note. More life, more life.