I entered a literary festival speech contest recently at college. The subject matter was to be "family." Now, I am not a fan of what I call "canned speeches" so, I decided to put a creative spin on mine. I will say that I enjoyed hearing everyone's speech as there were varied ages of the participants. It is always nice to hear what goe's on in other peoples' minds when it comes to various subjects. It also gives people a chance to get as creative as possible and engage their audience and I like to hear the creativeness come out either in the written word or vocally.
I would like to share some of that speech here, in this forum, to, hopefully, give you all a different slant on how important each of you are to your family. . . in more ways than one:
I would like to discuss family palettes and how, with your family palette, each of us, you and I, are impressionist artist's without even, possibly, realizing it! I will share with you a little story from my family palette to show just how 'colorful' some members can be. We had taken a trip to my Grandfathers home a couple of years ago and had a long overdue reunion of sorts with my youngest brother (I am number 4 of 5 children). He came bringing along four of his five children all of whom were well over the age of 12 and quite aware of what was and was not appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Well, during the visit, his children were being disrespectful and acting very inappropriately. Keep in mind my Grandfather was approximately 93 years old at the time. The boys got angry because they were getting reprimanded by their parents as well as myself and my husband so, they decided to go outside. The following morning as we were packing up our car we noticed something on the back of our vehicle. Upon further inspection, it became apparent that one of the boys had urinated on the back of our car! Yes folks. . . he PEE'D ON OUR CAR!! Now, I won't bore you with how I deducted that it was urine nor will I go into the rest of my reaction but, suffice to say, that they were not invited during the next visit. Ahhhhh. . . family love. . . can't you just feel it!
How, might you ask does this have anything to do with being an impressionist artist? Let's take a look at you as the impressionist. We all leave impressions on people everyday, everywhere we go; be it at work; at school; in the grocery store; or even driving down the street. But what of those impressions? Well, naturally, we normally like to leave good impressions with people or, at least, a certain type of positive impression. We're respectful to our bosses; nice to our co-workers; congenial with our classmates, etc. yet, we have stressful days. These same people can irritate us, annoy us, make us angry, and get on our last nerve. We worry about bills we have to pay, exams we have to study for, getting the car fixed, etc. But, who do we take our agression, frustration, and anger out on? If one of these people made us angry, most of us, as in my example for instance, wouldn't go and urinate on their vehicle. Well, if it's our boss, not if we want to keep our job anyway!
We take these feelings home and what do we do when we walk in the door? The saying, "you always hurt the one's you love," tends to ring all too true at times. We tend to take these negative feelings out on our family members or, possibly the dog if it happens to get in the way. What of the impressions we are leaving on them? Why do we tend to be more concerned with the impressions we leave on people other than our own family members? Is this really our intention?
My youngest daughter helped me see the colors and impressions I bring to my own family palette a little more clearly one day. We were dining out one Sunday afternoon and she asked me what her palette was. So, I proceeded to explain it to her. She told me that she thought hers was changing because she liked the taste of different foods and foods she had never liked before. This prompted me to explain to her what a 'discerning palette' was. I also explained that as people get older, sometimes their palette's change; some people's palette's mature over time; some people's palette's never mature and; some palette's only reach a certain point in maturation. . . just like in life!
This made me think about my own palette and the impressions I leave on my family. I think it's important that we all check our palette's from time to time when it comes to the interactions we have with our family members. A healthy and discerning palette as part of a healthy functioning family is an essential ingredient when learning to interact with the real world.
I am happy to say that my daughter's are developing healthy palette's for life. The colors they bring, through their impressions, not only to our family but to the world will be invaluable tools as they move through life. Adding just the right colors with just the right tones to your own family palette can enhance your family artistry. I wish for all of you a family masterpiece as you add your own colorful positive impressions to your family's palette!
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