Flowers are red, young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen
Hmmm, do you bristle when you heard the words “Repeat after Me”?
My mind has a tendency to go off on its own now and then on tangents that seem unrelated to what I am doing. I have learned that there is always a good reason for these mental diversions. If I give my mind permission to wander, the reason eventually reveals itself.
This morning the Harry Chapin song “Flowers are Red” popped into my mind. For younger generations who may not have heard of him, Chapin was one of the most successful singer/songwriters in the 1970’s known for his story songs.
“Flowers are Red” tells the story of a young boy’s first day at school. He grabs a crayon and starts drawing. The teacher chastises him for drawing without permission and, after determining that he was drawing multi-coloured flowers, delivers the lines at the top of this post. The young below replies:
There are so many colours in the rainbow
So many colours in the morning sun
So many colours in the flowers and I see every one
The teacher calls him sassy, instructs him that There’s way that things should be done and puts him in a corner with the admonition:
It’s for your own good
And you won’t come out ‘til you get it right
And all responding like you should
The young boy feels frightened and conforms to the teacher’s demand. Some years later, the boy goes to another school with a more progressive teacher who encourages him to express himself in his drawing. But he replies with the words that have been drilled into him.
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen
“Flowers are Red” warns us what can happen if we supress a child’s spirit. It is also an anthem for those of us who are driven to go their own way even if it is not what is expected of us. And also, it now occurs to me, a metaphor to encourage us in these times when our lives are squeezed into narrow confines that our spirit rebels against.
Our life is a blank canvas that we paint as we find our way. But it is not a paint-by-the numbers exercise. There are parameters we need to operate within. But our flowers can and should be any colour we choose – and we should be able to draw them whenever we feel the urge.
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: be true to yourself · Flowers are Red · Harry Chapin · independance · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments