Memories of Crayons

Image taken from Photobucket.com

How easily we forget the tools of our trade as a child, when our only job was to dream. The feelings of invincibility. No worries of politics and war. No worries of corruption and finance. No worries of the dangers that lurks in the outside world beside our imagination. Perhaps as we grow up and lose that innocence and give up the things we cherished as children.

Before we had set our paths; before we have even discovered our talents, or lack thereof, we thought anything was possible; because with our crayons, anything was possible. Broken down and tattered with its wrapper hardly intact and with its sharp and dull ends, a wobbly line would transform into a worm; a sloppily drawn rectangle, a car; and a circle, a fish. Smelling like wax and plaster, it takes us back to a time of innocence where ideas and creativity is plentiful. Because smell is the only sense that can send unfiltered signals to the brain, the smell of an object enjoyed as a child, such as crayons, can unlock past memories and tap into the aura of that dreamer that once was us.

With its bright coloring and simplicity, it may not have the finesse of markers and pens, or the sophistication of computer aided designs, but it fitted perfectly in our tiny stubby hands as we explored what it offered to us as one of the first tools obtainable to bring about our imagination. As children, we think nothing much of the capabilities of a crayon; we know only that it gives us pleasure to produce something that we find aesthetically pleasing. However, reflecting upon it, it is a tool designed to bring forth fantasies and dreams by creation and design.

It is amazing how objects of such raw and simple rainbow colors can bring to life such dreams and fantasies that have aided in the design of today’s society.