You’re told BUY THIS NOW. Or: eat this food. Don’t ever eat that one. Exercise this way, this much. Etc.

What happened to “smell the roses”?

I think back on instructions and recall the very different ways that my four children handled them in kindergarten. Which is all about staying in line. In all kinds of ways.

Nika had no problem with lines/ drawing within the lines. She used them as guides and went further to draw more lines, to understand her world better. How does a bicycle work? Years later, she works for the Environmental Defense Fund – helping us keep nasty chemicals out of food. She worked overtime determining the bicycle lines when 5. She works even harder to define ways to keep our planet’s health in line now.

Hunter had no use for lines whatsoever. They irritated her. She chose to use her colors freely, regardless of the lines she was supposed to fill. In her art, the fish swam in the sky. Why not? As an adult, her work is all about social justice. About lines that have been arbitrarily imposed, especially for children’s education: who put those lines there anyway?

And then there was Ariella who immediately appreciated the concept of lines. She came home everyday to spend hours with her “little people” /Lego type dolls, lining them up for this, lining them up for that. She started and runs a school for teaching English in Algeria at this time.

Samsun, the youngest, was also keen on lines. For him their value was… lines made letters. Letters made words. And what could matter more than words? Of course, now he’s a writer (on top of teaching economics).

When I was young, I couldn’t see clearly until my vision was corrected at age 3.

When shown the letter e, did I see

or

?

So, yes, the questions is: what is a line, anyway?

Different for each of us, possibly? And we might be guided accordingly. And maybe that line, “just e”, serves us well.

And other times… What instructions? What line???
Blurry “eees”.

Ease.

“Smell the roses”.