I’m a big fan of observation, reflection and symbolism. It’s neat to sit and think about what drives people to do the things they do. With an active imagination I like to watch people walk the streets, sidewalks and train stations. I’ll usually pick one person from the safety of my café or bus stop and watch them as long as they stay within my vision.
I try to anticipate their moves as other people cross their path or as they come across traffic. I wonder what they are looking at when they stare into store windows or I wonder what they are thinking when they glance, seemingly blankly towards the heavens. I wonder how much that little green man releases within them when he flashes from red to green and allowing them to walk, to safely cross the street free to move forward in their lives.
As children our parents take great pains to teach us when and how to cross the street. Most will take the hands of their children when its time to cross, teaching them to look both ways and then slowly, cautiously, crossing towards the other side. As we age, gaining our parents confidence we are given the freedom to cross streets on our own. Free to risk a bolt across without looking if we want or standing and waiting for the light to turn green three times before we cross. This freedom to move or not in a hyper complex yet organized system fascinates me.
I wrote in my last post of the immense freedom that painting gives me. The freedom of being alone to decide one’s fate is gratifying and addictive. The reality though is that type of freedom is only found in solitude. For me it only exists in painting and then even there my actions are expressions of freedom but the subject, the painting itself is something creeping out of me from much deeper.
This painting is my simple tip of the hat to those deeper, symbolic things happening inside of me and inside of each of us. We share space and time. My movement through space affects you and your movement affects me, whether we are in the same room or same country. We affect each other when we are aware of the others existence. I humbly admit and accept that my awareness of you as the other affects me.
I have stood at that crossroads watching the traffic flying by. I have stood patiently waiting for the man to turn from red to green. Waiting for the sign to indicate to me that it is safe to walk ahead, to move forward confidently. If only the rest of the signs in our lives were as easy to spot as the man going from green to red.
Recently the repercussions of my decisions and my reliance on others and their ability to help me move forward have become frightening and joyously clear. I’ve discovered there are dozens of you, if not hundreds of you, that are holding signs for me. Some of you grabbed the sign from me when I was young and have held it closely, painstakingly close for years only flashing it, showing me that you have been holding it, after the passage of time. I’m happy to be free to walk after all these years.
There are still others for reasons unknown to me that have managed to manifest themselves as sign bearers at the right time and right moment. Gloriously flashing me their sign when I needed it most or sometimes when I least expected it.
There are those of you close to me, uncomfortably close to me sometimes, that gently slide your sign to my attention, while some of you insist on whacking me with signs to walk, move or sit still. I appreciate all of it. Although I may not move when you like or how you like I do appreciate your willingness to show me you sign.
Knowing when to walk, knowing when to wait for the green man or bolt across the street ahead of or through traffic is extremely a personal thing. Most will recognize and see the same signs and move in unison. Some will jump ahead of the crowd and risk everything to stay ahead while others will stand in terrified indecision not aware of the signs at all.
So the next time you are standing there waiting, waiting for the sign to move ahead, and it finally goes green, it simply means step forward the path ahead is clear and new. It is your sign to move confidently into the sea of the organized complexity of life.