My first apartment in New York was pretty amazing. It was a fairly large studio (based on New York standards) on the top floor of a four-floor walk up on the Upper East Side. The price was great too, $825 per month.
This was nearly unheard of in a city in which studios half the size of mine
usually cost double to rent. The
bathroom even had a skylight which meant I could pee by moonlight in the
middle of the night.
It was a big, thick
heating pipe that sat nearly 6 inches away from the wall…so it didn’t exactly
blend it. I couldn’t hang anything
on it because it got so hot in the winter, it would burn anything that came
near it.
I hated that white pipe
but I loved the red one. Everyone
loved the red pipe. Friends who would visit for the first time used to say,
“too bad about that pipe” would now say, “I love that pipe.”
I recently wrote a piece about the misfits - the left-siders. The left-siders are like the human version of the heating pipe. Others can easily see we don't belong and too often we believe
them. What makes us different will always set us apart even if we try to blend in. But if we follow the lesson of the red heating pipe, must embrace our misfitedness, point to it ourselves and celebrate it.
Only when we paint the thing that doesn't fit bright red does it become a thing of beauty.
what a great story...In feng shui, the color red is associated with "amping up" something and it is also the color for the "fame and reputation area" - which is about "how you are perceived in your world and the element is fire....need i say more....thank you simon
Posted by: travers | 08/03/2010 at 08:06 AM
Sent to me by pen pal and fellow Twin Peaks enthusiast Tim Höfer, a lucious pixel painting of the iconic Red Room and a few other familiar Twin Peaks icons. That cherry pie looks good enough to eat, but honestly
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Posted by: buy kamagra | 06/08/2010 at 11:07 AM
This is an empowering and uplifting story. Thanks for bringing this concept up.
Posted by: M Barrera | 05/14/2010 at 10:56 PM
Hey Simon,
That's an awesome story with the pipe in the apartment !
I always tried to fit in, and tried to blend in by hiding my other-ness. Needless to say, it was a miserable life, and only when I completely embraced myself about a year ago did my life change for the better.
You're right, one has to completely accept one's uniqueness, making it more obvious instead of trying to hide it by blending in (useless!).
I want to become the brightest red you've ever seen !!
Posted by: Marsdorian | 05/12/2010 at 07:03 AM