Nothing is as visible as what we try to hide.Japanese proverb
...been reading these books on therapeutic writing...with all these suggested prompts for venturing into the jungle inside...shadow selves, inner critics, masks and mood colors...all that shit...and finding it’s taking me a long time to get through it...keep doing all the exercises in my head...including the ones they keep emphasizing should only be attempted with a qualified facilitator...preferably with a degree or two in counseling, present...can make for a rather harrowing reading experience....
Blue blue electric blue, that’s the color of my room, where I will live,
blue blue
David Bowie
...pick a color that expresses your “current life or state of being”...all I can think of when I read that is blue...it’s not even like I pick it...or that it picks me...it’s just there...in the forefront and behind my entire field of inner vision...any other colors just dancing around ephemerally...and we all know what blue means, right?...every day, every day I have the blues...blues fallin’ down like hail...when she turned blue, all the angels screamed...but, just outside, there’s the sky above the snow...I mean, it’s trite, but it’s real...all we have here is sky, all the sky is is blue...and but for the sky there are no fences facing...and, then of course the ocean, water...chaos between earth and sky...giver and destroyer...blue all the life giving waters taken for granted, they quietly understand...when the levee breaks, there’ll be no place to stay....
...synaesthesia is that exquisite little misfiring of the synapses by which sounds are interpreted as smells, or smells as shapes, or shapes as flavors...kinda like saying you want a red flavored snow-cone, but a bit more sophisticated....a friend and I used to sit around listening to music and making tapes for each other...he had these multicolored magic markers, and I’d write down song titles with those...always trying to choose the right color for a particular song...sometimes we’d discuss it: would you say those two are red songs or blue songs?...I’m thinking kind of a blending of the two, not quite purple, really, more like red and blue tendrils interweaving, swirling together, kinda....the strange thing was, he seemed to know what I was talking about...at least at the time....
...so, here I live, in between the mean old lonesome blues and the clear blue sky...embroiled in the raging ocean or floating on the calm sea...then, don’t we all...the ideal, I think, is to float peacefully on a raging ocean...but I’m not anywhere near there, yet...hey blue, here is a song for you...because it all, somehow, feels like music....
[particular shades of blue provided by Pablo Picasso, B. B. King, Robert Johnson, Lou Reed, Jane Siberry, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Memphis Minnie (by way of Led Zeppelin), the Grateful Dead, and Joni Mitchell]
19 comments:
Wow, as soon as I read this I also saw blue, but an icy pale blue, really beautiful. Could be that I'm influenced by the weather, could be that my aesthetic is often bleaker than I let on. Hope those exercises give you some good stuff to chew on.
I once had a housemate who saw numbers as colours - her brother could do it too, almost but not quite identically. Sometimes she'd call her brother up and they'd have long conversations that went something like..."19? A sort of purply grey, I think. No, 6 is definitely orange. Not a bright orange though...What? No, number 3 is a really subtle green. I know, 12 is DEFINITELY red, kind of rusty..." She had the finest colour sense I've ever come across, and some of her favourite colours were fine subtle greys.
I remember a smell that I could only describe as "maroon", don't recall what it was but it seemed so strange that this smell was a colour :-)
I love this post. I think it's wonderful that you had a friend that spoke your musical/color language. If blue is what consistently comes up for you, keep going with it! What songs fall into the blue category? Not so much literally, as with the Bowie lyrics. Go deeper with it, meditate in it - deep into the blue, let it carry you as see what coms up!
As an artist, I use colors all the time, but they mean so much more to me than what I see with my eyes. there is a tone heard in my head with each hue, and yes - certain numbers definitely have colors associated with them, in my mind. Even certain flavors seem to have numbers and colors interwoven, for me. The brain is fascinating! Color can be yet another gateway into a maze of discovery!
Blue, blue, blue--I love blue. It really is my favorite color and I don't associate it with 'being blue' I associate it with lying outside on the sweet spring grass of Montana, looking up at the HUGE blue skies with big fluffy clouds that roll by.
Now *black* I associted as 'blue.' There was a time when I never wore anything but black--and everything I would buy was black--my sheets, my towels, EVERYTHING. This was when I was 12. :) My mother said there was something abnormal about a 12 year old girl who was so drawn to black. I think she was right!
I hope blue can also bring some of that amazing Montana sky to you.
Take care,
Melinda
I have used theraputic writing, it was like writing my mythology. All the helpers and the obstacles, the villains, the heros and the hands of the Gods interwoven throughout. "Spirits are using me, larger voices calling," sort of thing. Sometime the way people write about that kind of genre is very "Zen-like and Irritating," LOL The words are there, but there is a lack of authenticity somehow, like you are telling people to do some strangely retarded mental exercise that only succeeds in making one feel ridiculous and the opposite of creative.
When I think of Synaesthesia {SP?} I really focuse on Neuroplasticity. I don't see it as a misfiring, but as the unique perceptions of an individual brain/consciousness, that might have rewired itself for any number of reasons, resulting in this fascinating modality.
I have this thing about green food - can't tell you why, but any green food, I absolutely love.
I swear, green food has a particular taste, and its a taste I really, really enjoy.
I'm fascinated by this idea of communicating in color. I just studied the philosophy of language (before I dropped out my philosophy PHD) and I think the notion of "red flavored" speaks so well to kinds of non-verbal language skills we indubitably possess. I look forward to reading more of your blog.
A deep Aqua blue-green is my "at peace" colour. I look at a photo or art work with these colours, wallpaper, clothes and I feel a deep sense of peace/calm. I am Pisces and a water baby ... so maybe it has something to do with that?
You've got to keep thinking
You can make it thru these waves
Acid, booze, and ass
Needles, guns, and grass
Lots of laughs, lots of laughs
Everybodys saying that hells the hippest way to go
Well I dont think so
But Im gonna take a look around it though
Blue, I love you
-- Blue, Joni Mitchell
I love blue too.
Hi drjay. I would also have to say blue or green or some combination, because they're my favorite colors. I think I would choose them to describe my feelings no matter how I felt. Like Aggie, I'm also a Pisces and I love watery color.
Also, I've always had this strange thing in my head where some words remind me of foods, which is maybe not that strange afterall. Like "yoga" makes me think of "yogurt" (understandable), but "table" makes me think of "maple syrup." I know, weird, but I can't be the only person who thinks of this stuff! I hope. :o|
Right on. man. Nice work. Right now, I'm thinking of Hamlet, NC, and Blue Train . . .
I don't know if I could pick one color at any given point in time.
Though blue is a good choice--it can go so many ways.
Dr. Jay
Great post it made me feel blue because blue is how I feel these days. If blue had a scent to me it would smell like morning dew..i know it sounds strange but in the morning when the sun is rising and all is calm that's blue to me.
How do you snap out of the blue this is my project for the year or at least I will give it my best shot.
I recently fell on my head and I know that somethings changed in me???not sure how to explain it but something is off. Read my last post you'll see what I'm saying.
Take Care
JB
"Nothing is as visible as what we try to hide.
Japanese proverb"
Wow, I have never actually thought about that that way. Enlightening quote.
But besides that, good post Yoga I love it when things make me think. ...But not think too much. =P
I love blue especially turquoise and sea green foam like colors. But while reading your post these lyrics immediately came to my mind.
It's like Bombay Sapphires, hey I can take you higher, whatever you desire, I can mend your heart"..
"It is green it is aqua marine, it is colors I have never seen, I can see past you to the white sand..it is blue it is not about you..it is all true...you know who I am".
"The sea never changes not really it is the constant in my life,I always return here to the flash of those colors through every window, the wind through the night..here I am dramatic, here I am not waiting, here I am not listening..to the call of the wild"
Lyrics by Stevie Nicks
When I feel blue which if often of late..it feels like a ugly pukey green.
Laura Nyro saw musical notes as colors..it took a while for her producers and crew to get the idea but as time went on when she said "that sounds like a yellow" they began to understand.
Blessings,
Rhiannon
I once had a 1956 4-door Ford Customline that was robin's egg blue. Named Buster. Buster smiled. A trip in Buster to the ocean was all I ever needed to know about blue.
A color is just a label. As you have so able pointed out. And if you are blue Jay, then you are a Caribbean blue with top shades of emerald and fathoms of turquoise. There is no marker in the world that could quite capture you in all your depth.
Blue is not just a color, it's an energy, a driving creative force that desires expression. Blue has played a huge roll in my life and creative development. I really enjoyed reading your meditation on it. Thank you!
I wanted you to know that I linked part of a posting on 'if the walls could' talk. . . to your blue blue posting. There is a short phrase in here that I grabbed. . . heyBlue. As always, I enjoy your site.
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