A Poem

I have always loved the cadence of this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I have no idea whether it is critcally acclaimed or not, but I like it for its rhythm and imagery. It's called "The Song of Hiawatha" and my father used to recite it to me when I was a child -- this one, and "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer and "I Think That I Shall Never See a Poem as Lovely as a Tree" by Joyce Kilmer.
		By the shore of Gitchie Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, At the doorway of his wigwam, In the pleasant Summer morning, Hiawatha stood and waited. All the air was full of freshness, All the earth was bright and joyous, And before him through the sunshine, Westward toward the neighboring forest Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo, Passed the bees, the honey-makers, Burning, singing in the sunshine. Bright above him shown the heavens, Level spread the lake before him; From its bosom leaped the sturgeon, Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine; On its margin the great forest Stood reflected in the water, Every tree-top had its shadow, Motionless beneath the water. From the brow of Hiawatha Gone was every trace of sorrow, As the fog from off the water, And the mist from off the meadow. With a smile of joy and triumph, With a look of exultation, As of one who in a vision Sees what is to be, but is not, Stood and waited Hiawatha.

Colors Are Colors - Leave Them Alone

We live in a state where loyalties are divided between two teams: the Utah Utes, whose color is bright red, and the BYU Cougars, who wear dark blue. Because we are Cougars at our house, we wear a lot of blue and almost no red. In fact, I am the only member of the family who will wear red at all, and I get a lot of guff from my children about it, but the way I see it, the University of Utah does not OWN the color red. I will not surrender one eighth of the basic Crayola Crayons box to our sworn enemies across town. If I want to wear red, I will wear it (just never on game day).

I got to thinking about this because the other day I read about an upcoming event requesting that everyone wear "survivor pink." I know it's about fundraising and breast cancer awareness, etc., but there are dozens of shades of pink and no one owns any of them. While I whole-heartedly support the cause, I will not surrender the color.

Similarly, I will not surrender the rainbow...not for gay rights and not for Jesse Jackson's coalition. No one institution or group of people can own the sequence of colors created by a prism of light, affectionately known as ROY G. BIV: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. I love all of those colors, and I love them in that sequence. Rainbows are a naturally occurring phenomenon, and the awe-inspiring experience of seeing one cannot be co-opted.

For me, green does not describe jobs, czars, movements, etc. It is a color. Please leave it alone.