Yellow Was My Favourite

That was until I found orange. I later switched to turquoise, lemon and green in no particular order. I’ve also liked peach for some minutes and in between days. Yellow was my favourite as a boy. I loved it. I was in the school Yellow House too. Not one to love sparingly, I practically adored yellow. I couldn’t bear anybody loving yellow a little less. And I wanted yellow to always look better than the world around. I don’t hate it yet but it isn’t anywhere near favourite anymore. I don’t like bright colours. They seem to be screaming at me whenever I look at them. Yellow is so bright I can hardly hold my gaze. For old times’ sake I don’t hate it. I just respect it as an old acquaintance.
Growth is replacing lies with truth. It is putting away and bringing in. Growth isn’t acquiring numbers. It is making numbers valuable. A lot of putting away is necessary to accomplish growth. Growth is really metamorphosis. And contrary to popular opinion, growth is a reversible reaction. People grow up and grow down. Like I said in an earlier post, it’s really a question of the Mathematic of Numbers.
Whether we like it or not we’re always changing. Those who make progress are those who are conscious of change and direct it towards the pull of the tide. The airplane would have remained a boy’s toy if it didn’t learn from the fish the science of fins and the art of streamlining. That secret is pivotal to its ability to fly today. Airplanes shouldn’t be wiser than you. If they can streamline then so can you. We ought to possess a certain degree of aloofness with respect to things that be and those that were. This will help us shed old skin and grow new ones. Growing up is a lot like marriage. You’ll have to leave if you’re going to cleave.
When my options were limited to black, white, red, yellow and green, yellow was my favourite. My options started changing when I heard cyan, turquoise, indigo, violet etc. The larger options created room for a larger choice. It made me choose the colour of the sea breeze and the song of the quiet night. Limiting your horizons is akin to shaving off a leopard’s beards. It is closing your eyes to the beauty all around. Life’s most important skill is learning. That is broadening your horizons. Learners grow up easily. The learnt grow down more easily. They move from adultship to babyship in no time. Learning is leaving and cleaving. It is discarding old and irrelevant data and feeding your drive with present truth.
When the airplane approached the fish for a discussion on its ability to swim without falling, it went as a learner. The fish introduced the airplane to the first principles of thermodynamics, drag, viscosity, air resistance and streamlining. Learning from the fish put the airplane several steps ahead of his friend, the motor car, which was just interested in maintaining status quo.
Avogadro was once a lawyer, Gabriel Okara a Book-binder and Yeshua bin Yusef a carpenter. “Was” is a powerful word. It preserves history while making room for newstory. “Was” teaches us that yesterday’s ideal isn’t today’s credo. It shows us learners never lack. Learning is refining, beautifying and adorning. Kids, they pay little attention to beauty. Growing up is defined as the process of becoming more beauty conscious. It’s not about numbers. It’s about the one more committed to adorning his night and day songs. Yellow was also once my favourite. I ended up breaking up with her. That is why I can paint in the voices of my dreams.