Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us. ~Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest”
The end of the semester is on its way and I am feeling the pressure of the whole semester coming forth. The rush of anxiety thickens my blood as I pop caffeine pills and drink coffee all night. Finally, I have completed all I can for the night and as I lay down to sleep the anxiety of school rushes back through my body. While I know if I do not sleep, I will not be able to study just as hard the next day, I cannot rest my mind. In this time of overwhelming stress, I look to find my colors.
Although I cannot bear to imagine the stress and fretfulness that occurs during war, even the regular rituals experienced by the average person leads to relying on the colors to cope with during difficult times. While reading this confusion on what the meaning of color is it also probably has apprehended you much as it did me and Mike. T stationed in Afghanistan when a squad leader advised him on COLORS.
“Brother, there are going to be times when you have to do things you never thought imaginable, things that would make any man scared for his own life and those of his fellow soldiers. But when it all seems lost and you’re about to lose your mind, that’s when the colors become your lifeline.”
The colors he states is our memories, smells, sounds, music, and anything which can make you at peace with yourself. Whether, it is walking through a freshly plowed field and smelling the aroma of newly cut grass, or if it is your son’s third birthday party, these memories can hold a soldier together. Colors make you bear the unbearable. Mike. T in the military blog Colors on March 31, defines exactly what Walter Dean Myers illustrates throughout Fallen Angels. Richie Perry, one of Walter Dean Myers main characters recalls memories about his brother Kenny and mother throughout the novel, especially during missions and watch duty. One of Richie Perry’s memories while disheartening illustrates escaping from the traumatic war by remembering home.
I looked at my watch. I still had three hours to go. I had time for a long story. I hoped that Lobel didn’t fall asleep. I swept my over the gate, the way they had showed us to on night maneuvers back at Devens.
I though about Mama. I worried about her. She had hoped that when I finished high school I would get a job and help her keep the house together. When I told her I was going to the army, she cried.
“ I might as well get it over with,” I had said , sitting in the tiny kitchen. Over the stove the old electric clock was five minutes early. Kenny always set it early in the mornings, knowing that by evening it would be late.
Mike T. illustrates his colors when stating
“I will find a place to isolate myself, to concentrate on a specific color that brings me back to a somewhat normal level. I miss the ocean, the gentle breeze from the shore pines near my house, the cat and dog chasing each other, the perfume of my lovely girlfriend. The songs she and I used to sing out loud and dance to together, or the long drives to nowhere. I miss her smile and touch, how they brought peace to my soul. How a splash of Johnny Walker and red wine aromas filled our kitchen on a beautiful summer evening. ”
Perhaps not all of Perry’s memories made him at peace with the war but they did relieve him from the struggles during long missions. As Mike T. stated they were extensions of the mind, body, and soul to alleviate as soldier from the harsh reality of war. Overall, Color is a wonderful world to indicate the memories which holds a person together through hard times.
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years
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I really like this blog maybe because we all can relate to this “getting things done in a rush” sometimes i think that every one gets focused on their specific part of finals, the professors with the pressures of getting their tests done and then graded (making sure the students are not overwhelmed : ) no pressure at all for us ha ha), your friends being at the library or those who just shut themselves in a room for a week and then, when you see them again and realize how much all that caffeine really got to them.
I could not imagine what the soldiers had to go threw and those who are in combat now are dealing with. Our stress is a lot different then their stress. We worry about getting that last bit of info stuck in our head for the better grade, they worry about getting that last bit of info stuck in their head so their head or their buddies head does not get blown off. The stress is a neutral factor but how we deal with it can make or break us.
The first thing when i was reading your blog, was that i was starting to get a little stressed but once you mentioned colors the first thing that i thought of was a summer day in my front yard when i was five years old and it brought a sense of calmness to me. That would probably be the closest thing i can think of, that would pertain to what soldiers go threw when they are in battle or getting stressed and trying to think of good memories or colors that would help them through the day.
[...] Colors [...]