POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Blank Wall and Paper

By Nandy Ekle

I have a friend who is an artist. She paints everything from glass jars to cardboard boxes. When we moved into our house with the extremely white walls, she was so excited.

“I love your new house,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said. “The walls are so white it makes the whole house gleam.”

She looked around the room and I could see the proverbial light bulb going on above her head. “I look at those walls and see canvases just waiting for paint.”

I smiled and just went on with my unpacking.

Now, quite a few years later, I remember her telling me that, and I think about the blankest thing that inspires me. When I was a kid in school, my favorite time of year was right before school started. My mom would cut the school supply list out of the paper and drive us to the five and dime store. There we would load up on crayons, pencils, paste, and paper. Lots and lots of paper. Back at our house the supplies were doled out and I spent the last few days of summer arranging and rearranging my school supplies.

I had to touch every brand new crayon, sharpen all my pencils and smell the paste. But my very favorite school supply was all that blank paper with the blue lines, just waiting for words to be inscribed.

To this day, well past my school days, blank paper still makes my heart smile, kind of like the blank wall my friend was excited to see.

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