Violet

"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society."
Aristotle

~

I wish I could say that but I can't.
I'll just tell you that life is about filling in the blanks before they fill you.

There was once this little girl who wanted to imagine a color that doesn't exist. Little did she know that she was trying to remember the color of her soul. Her grandfather had recently fallen in love with balloons. The little girl gave him her favorite balloon. It was white and she tied its grey ribbon to the left side of his wheelchair. And when she asked him what balloons reminded him of, he told her that, in a way, they represented the Holy Spirit, but her strawberry ice-cream and mysterious daydreams kept her from listening. He knew that his answer didn't register in her memory but smiled nonetheless at the sight of an idea - the idea that the Holy Spirit would later reveal herself to her through the eyes of another human soul rather than industrial helium. Little did he know that his love for balloons was merely a desperate way to hold on to that lively feeling of lightness he knew he was going to lose.

The harmony of the scene was suddenly broken when a little boy bumped into the old man's granddaughter. The small black Frisbee he had thrown to the sky and ran so hard to catch - as if it would return a divine gift - fell right next to his face as he tripped clumsily to the ground. High-quality strawberry ice-cream was slowly dripping down the girl's yellow sundress. She innocently smiled as she ran her finger through the pink coldness on her lips and softly painted a small warm home for it on the tip of the boy's nose. The little boy's face had turned whiter than the balloon. He blinked violently at the touch of her finger and then, after giving her a flying kiss and his Frisbee as an apology, he ran away so quickly just to blink again.

And as he blinks you see the boy a man, his wife beside him in her perfect yellow dress. She asks him about balloons, what color they would be in his perfect world and what he thinks they symbolize for him. He tells her they'd be white and purple and that they remind him of the kind of empty dreams people aren't supposed to hold onto. She innocently smiles and naturally proceeds to answer her own question. She says that her ideal world would have balloons in all colors, even those that don't exist. And then she stops and smiles again as she remembers that beautiful painting she loves and instantly decides that a balloon represents hope, hope against all odds. She tells him about the painting, while maintaining this heavenly drawing on her face, but not about hope because that's not how she wants them to find eachother. He blinks violently to savor her sudden, unsolicited laugh and then turns and runs as fast as he can to catch the red Frisbee that flew from her hand. And as he catches it while losing his balance, she blinks to keep him from falling - and then she blinks again.

And as she blinks, I see the girl and though she doesn't know it, she's here sleeping right next to me.
I hope you know that what's left of my heart is hope. And I hope you know this hope is you.

~

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
RWE