Thursday, March 1, 2007

PAINTING WITH WORDS

I attached this as a comment to my last entry and decided to make it as an entry.

There's an old, old Bonanza episode. I forget if the man was a friend or a friend of a friend who needed someplace to get his bearings. He was an artist who'd lost his sight. He was outside by the lake with one of the Cartwrights. Ben, I think, but it's been years since I've seen this. And it's one of the few episodes that's stuck all these years.

The artist asks what's around them. The usual, trees, water, grass, sky. Then he starts asking for a more detailed description. Not just green, but what kind of green? Not just blue but what kind of blue. Are there clouds? Are they reflected in the water? He comes to understand that he may not be able to paint with a brush anymore, but he has a life time of memories of places he's been and seen and he can still paint them. With words.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that.  I've always been a "word" person -- even though I still love visuals.  Language is a gift!!

Russ

Anonymous said...

Sad but nice. But I still chuckled when you mentioned Bonanza....BONANZA!!! haha--Cin