Technicolor Life

I know a woman who lives her life in Technicolor.

I think very few people live their life in Technicolor. In fact more often than not, I would think people live their life in black and white, or even sepia. But my friend lives in Technicolor. She takes life on in a way that I have seen few people do. Now you’re probably wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.

For example most people eat food, not her, she slowly takes bites of things, closing her eyes so that she can give it her full attention. She see’s what flavors and ingredients she can extract and then she will discuss them in terms of their strength, subtlety and essence. If you have lunch with her, you may never look at a slice of pizza the same way. 

She also approaches every experience with the kind of zeal that would exhaust most people.  I recall spending a forth of July right after high school with a group of my friends. This was a particularly sad forth of July because we knew we where all getting split up, most of my friends had been accepted to college and where leaving. She was one of them, and I think that she decided it was extremely important to live every moment of the dwindling summer with gusto.  We all sat in the bed of my friend’s dads red pickup. Our eyes facing skyward so that we could watch our small towns excuse for a firework show. It was, indeed pathetic. However my friend, with her Technicolor sensibility, made it her mission to enjoy them. She ooooohed and awwwwed at the show as if she where looking at the Sistine Chapel. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I still think that may have been the best fireworks show of my life.

I was able to visit her this past week. She now lives in San Francisco where she has a grown up apartment, a grown up job, and fistfuls of grown up worries.  But she still, even now, is living her life with a kind of joy that would put happy the dwarf to shame. She says that living in San Francisco is like living in a giant amusement park, with so much to do at your fingertips. I love that. I love the idea of seeing your life, and where you are at as a place of fun and excitement just waiting for you to take it on.

So that is what I want to do, I want to start living my life in Technicolor. I want to stop living my life in sepia. It may not happen over night for me. It is not as intuitive for me to live with so much joy as it is for her. But I think she is a great role model. And that is definitely a start.