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Parachute Mind

Earlier this semester (in what seemed a much warmer time), while waiting for class to start, I found myself sitting outside of the Arts and Journalism building. I was eating a terribly greasy piece of pizza and making a few phone calls.

While on the phone, I noticed written in chalk on one of the walls a pale blue message:

"Mind is like a parachute
Fails unless open"

Wow. I have no idea who I was talking to on the phone, because I kept staring at that message.

Who wrote that? Certainly not some graffiti vandal freshman, or some ignorant slacker Gen Y flip-flop kid.

And who has the gaul to carry pastels on his (or her) person, waiting for the right time to strike out against the ignorant masses with a flurry--a tirade--of social responsibility via illicit chalk-writing?

And, how so profound?

All the advertising in the world sometimes doesn't even compete with the cryptic messages of late-night chalkers.

Do we have a future Basquiat on our hands here?

I wondered.

But, as I float around here this year, pointing my feet toward a predestined, predetermined position, I promise (oh, chalking ones) to keep my vision clear, my purpose focused, and of course both my mind and my parachute open.

The landing would be unthinkable otherwise.

Comments

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