Imagine a glass, a real glass, not plastic. Make it a tall glass, like the ones at pubs or latte glasses at nice restaurants. Now imagine 12 shot glasses, make them beveled glass if you like, but no goofy logos from Hooters. And a table, lets imagine one of those with a crisp, white, linen tablecloth. While we are at it, lets imagine warm surrounds, say a 75-degree day. Make it late afternoon since that is my favorite time of the day.
Now line those shot glasses up in a row next to the large glass and fill them with Italian soda syrups: cherry, raspberry, orange, tangerine, lemon, pineapple, green apple, lime, blueberry, blue raspberry, grape, and blackberry, all the colors in the rainbow.
Each of these flavors stands for some group of concerns. Some of these flavors (you know which ones they are for you) should be a double shot. Some of them, at least for me, should be quads. But then I like to worry.
Where am I going with this? Read on...
Now look at that cherry syrup. It stands for food; allergies, eating too much, eating too little, quality of food, too much candy or booze or red meat, or whatever. Now pour it into that big fancy glass. It makes a nice red tint to the glass, grounding the lightness of the glass with a warm red color at the bottom.
Now for that raspberry syrup, it means all the concerns about shelter: where to live, who to live with, rent, bugs, pets, roommates, live-ins, furniture, insurance, plumbing, and all those zillions of other things. Pour that into the glass. See that warm yummy color? It looks good enough to drink without adding any soda water, doesn’t it?
Shall we move on to the Citrus syrups: Lemon, lime, orange, tangerine, and grapefruit? Lets make orange mean love. You can make your own list for this one since love means different things to different people and that definition changes over time and from relationship to relationship.
Tangerine will symbolize health; am I getting sick, are they getting sick, arthritis, asthma, osteoporosis, operable cancers, hay fever, warts, crabs, lock jaw, cavities, and the myriad other worries about how we feel and how those around us feel. Heck, some of worry about how total strangers in other countries feel and are they going to give us all a new strain of swine flu anytime soon.
Grapefruit is a fun flavor, tart and sweet all at once. Lets make it mean sex; pregnancy, disease, kids, partners, quantity, quality, kinks, condoms, and how to get the stains out of the sheets. I know there are more, lots more. This shot glass is often full to the top.
Lets move on to family, we will call it lemon here. This means parents, kids, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, family by love, family by hate, in laws and out laws. Think of all the people from whom you would borrow money or who would ask t borrow it from you.
And to round of the citruses, lets have friends signified by lime. Friends give us so much; pain, confusion, love, someone to talk to and who always calls with a problem at 3am drunk and sobbing, and some one to gossip with on cold nights. Someone to love, envy, treasure, ignore, abuse, praise, and use as a mirror to see ourselves.
One by one empty those shot glasses into that tall glass. It makes a warm orangey-reddish color, vibrant and warm. It looks like some kind of still like in Florentine, doesn’t it? Shall we keep going?
Now we move into the cooler colors, the bottom of the rainbow. Lets start with green apple or religion as it means here. Is there someone out there, and if so, what is/are he/she/it/they like? What do they want from me and what do I get in return? Are aliens real? How about fairies? Do whales have souls? All the imponderables that make coffee shops so much money from late night debate and keep churches the riches institutions on our planet. Shall we pour that one in too?
Hmm, it is still a warm color, nice to look at and probably acid sweet to drink. It looks more like a west coast sunrise now. I think I would want soda water with it though, just to blend the flavors and dilute the strength of all that syrup.
How about blue raspberry and blueberry? The former stands for money; how to get it, how to spend it, how to save it, and who to share it with and the latter can mean work, since the thoughts are so often related. What do I mean by work? Well, where to work, what kind of work to do, how to do it better or faster, how to be promoted, start your own company, sell your art, and such. Come on, you know the drill, or if you don’t you will sometime in high school. Lets pour those in and see what happens.
The glass is almost full now, even up to the rim if you made those shots doubles. The color is muddy now, no longer vibrant, or warm. Not very inviting is it, even though all the flavors are tasty.
And so, at last, we come to the last few shots, grape and black berry.
Lets make grape mean success, or status, or living well and whatever that means to you at all the various stages and phases in your life; wealth, power, the big house, the perfect yard, the best collection of ankhs, the most tattoos, the best boots, the elusive coolness factor, keeping up with the Jones', your PhD., saving the whales, helping children, living off the grid, and all the other things by which we are known materially and socially to others. Sometimes this is a quad and sometimes it is barely a tint to the glass.
And the last syrup, blackberry, lets have that mean death, mortality, killing diseases, old age, and the ravages of time. This shot glass also fills and empties throughout our lives, peeking when we think about our death or the death of loved ones and emptying when we dance, paint, sing, have sex, or any other act of immortality. Lets pour those in and see what we have.
A mess on the table where all that syrup spilled over and something very undrinkable that looks nasty.
Now take a sip, no soda water, no chaser, no vodka, no holding your nose. Drink it down like gatorade on a hot day. Fill yourself with yourself.
Is it just me, or is each of these “flavors” is manageable, even fun, or tasty by itself or in combination with a few others but ghastly and cloying when combined with them all?
If that glass is you, your capacity to care about things, people, or ideas what does that mess on the table mean?
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