What's the Color of a Shadow?

By Paul Roberts

What’s the color of a shadow?

In my previous life as a public school educator - eons ago - I enjoyed conversations with my students about the human reaction to a question. Any question. I suggested to my students in my Speech/Communication class that a reasonable way to begin a speech was to simply pose a question, and allow the human brain the opportunity to wrestle with the thought. Questions are irresistible. We hear them in the melody of a phrase; we recognize the sound of a question mark in a properly formed English sentence, and immediately we begin to try and compose our answer. Our mind is engaged, made more alert, simply by the sound of the spoken word. Or the written word with a strange squiggly mark at the end of it.

This morning in my non-fiction reading time (it is so nice to be back on my regular schedule), Claire Watson Garcia posed the question “What’s the color of a shadow?” I’ve referred to her book, Painting for the Absolute and Utter Beginner, in previous blogs. I’m still working my way through her work, my mind exploding in fascination as I discover things that have been right in front of me all of my life but have somehow remained hidden from my view.

As a writer, as an English major/Speech minor, as a life-long lover of literature, I have always been thrilled by the nuance and shadows of language. The small details of an exquisitely worded composition are food to my soul. I see the shadows in the written language.

How is it that I have lived so long and not noticed the color of the shadows?

Before this morning, I am pretty sure my quick, curt answer to “What’s the color of a shadow?” would have been “Black.” What a narrow, unthinking answer to a crucial question in the world of representational art. Heck, black isn’t even a color.

I’m reminded of the stories from the New Testament of individuals whose lives were changed by a change in their vision. Blind men who were given the gift of sight, as if scales dropped from their eyes. Men living in darkness - blackness - and then having their eyes opened to the truth around them.

If you’re waiting for me to answer the question posed at the beginning of this blog, quit waiting. Today’s blog is not about getting the answers. It’s about hearing the questions. The wonderful, colorful, creative, curious questions.

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Got a curious question you’d like to pose to our Sacred Garden Community? Go for it. Share it here. Let’s talk about.

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