Friday, 4 April 2014
Rose-tinted glasses
I used to view the world through rose-tinted glasses, enamoured with everything I saw, with everything it was and could be. I had hope for the future, contentment for the present, and forgiveness for the past.
Somewhere along the way the lenses turned to green. The subtle, slow change from one hue to another barely perceptible, until the transformation was complete, and the iron fist of envy had me in its clutches. I began to crave what other's possessed, to hate them for having what I did not, and the colour was everywhere I looked.
It was a smaller step down to the blue, but decidedly more noticeable. I no longer wished for what was not mine, instead I spiralled down into the deepest depression, the darkest of blues coloured my every thought. Happiness was elusive and slippery, impossible to grasp.
Just lately the glasses have taken on a more pinkish colour again, not the warm rose-tinted pink of days gone by, but a more sinister pink that is rapidly darkening towards red.
And I can feel the rage building inside me...
©2014 Stephen. J. Green.
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Whoa, pretty sinister!
ReplyDeleteThanks Catherine. :-)
DeleteTime to get some new glasses!
ReplyDeleteYeah, or plain contact lenses. :-)
DeleteWow Steve, this is fantastic! You covered an entire life in so few words. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the very kind words Deanna. :-)
DeleteRed reminds me of blood. Strong story.
ReplyDeleteThanks David. :-)
Deletewhoa he needs a doctor.
ReplyDeleteYeah, or maybe a chill pill. :-)
DeleteThat is the progress of dreams to reality to bitterness, isn't it? A nice piece of work here, Steve. It's easy to see in the daily news how many people sink into the deep red morass instead of striving to make the pink more of their own personal goal in life.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephen, and thank you for the very nice comment. :-)
DeleteI do like your interpretation of this, but my idea was a little simpler than that. This really just stemmed from the phrase "Looking at the world through rose-tinted spectacles" and I decided to expand that to the moods that other colours are attributed to, Green for envy, Blue for sadness, and Red for anger, as the phrase "Seeing red" means to become really angry.
Glasses that reflect your mood - chilling! ^_^
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen, I think he would be better viewing the world through something less dangerous. :-)
DeleteIn Shakespeare's time the colours or 'humours' were felt to sum up character, an excess of any of the various fluids of the body determining character. I think some of our usage such as feeling blue stems from that. I like the layer of introducing a glass lens for projecting outwards and tinting what is actually very internal
ReplyDeleteThank you Marc.
Deleteyes, these are everyday phrases now, "seeing red" for anger "Feeling blue" for sadness, "lily livered" for cowardly, etc.
Wow... strong story, Steve! I think we've all worn some of those glasses once or twice in our lifes, but this guy is beyond saving. He's a rainbow of emotions that burst in the darkest nuances. Bloody scary and so well written.
ReplyDeleteThank you Cindy.
DeleteIt is true though. that most of us tend to view the world through the rose-tinted glasses when we feel happy and things are going good for us, and when things are not so good the world looks so different, and the blue lenses seem to take over.
Can't wait until they turn purple!
ReplyDeleteHeheh!! I don't know which emotion that colour will bring on, but I'm sure they'll look cool though. :-)
DeleteThat's some really heavy emotional narrative happening in so few words -- nice one!
ReplyDeleteThank you Katherine, this is yet another flash that I was tempted to expand on, but I do like to keep them as short as possible, and so decided not to. :-)
DeleteI love the way you took an oft overused phrase and twisted it into something descriptive and interesting. That was really good Steve, welldone :).
ReplyDeleteThanks Casey, I quite like using a different slant on common words and catch-phrases, a good few of my stories start out that way. :-)
DeleteA very powerful piece, Steve, enhanced by its brevity. I guess there is not much distance between red and pink, is there?
ReplyDeleteThank you Chuck. The colours aren't far apart, but I never heard of anyone flying into a rage because they saw pink though. :-)
DeleteReally well constructed flash, Steve. I could feel the change in his outlook during each phase.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard, you are very kind. :-)
Delete