Painting, Politically Incorrect Crayons
The last time I got to do any painting was last fall when I took my youth group leaders on a retreat at a Christian camp in New Hampshire. (Which reminds me...next week I'm going to be gone for a couple days to Massachussetts to visit my friend Dan, who used to be the Camp Director at that camp, but is now working at Grotonwood Camp.)Anyway, today I got to break out the paints, brushes, and rollers again, because Garrett needed some help painting his new house. So I spent the day working with Garrett, his brother Kirk, his father Larry, and Peter.
We had a wicked good time.
And it wasn't just because of the paint fumes, either. There isn't a more entertaining group of people to work with anywhere, so there was plenty of laughing and joking to make the time pass.At one point I said to Kirk, "Have you seen what shade of blue they're using in the living room?"
He said, "It's kind of a perriwinkle, if I remember my crayon colors right."
"Well you should," I said. "After all, you've got kids."
"Yeah, but they've changed all the color names now."
"Ha! No more 'Indian Red' and 'Flesh'?"
So, that got us started talking about political correctness. We could see both pros and cons to some of the stuff done in the name of political correctness. Here in Maine we've got mountains with names like "Squaw Mountain", and apparently the term squaw is now considered to be "derogatory", so the name has got to go. Here's a quote I found on the subject:
Quote:
| About two dozen locations in seven counties, most of them in Piscataquis and Aroostook counties, may be affected by the law, which was passed at the request of Maine Indians. Although some Indians do not find the word "squaw" offensive, many others say it is often used by non-Indians as a derogatory term to belittle and insult Indian women in a way that suggests promiscuity. |
So, there you have it.
But the running joke for the day was that Garrett would put different people to work painting the closets depending on who he thought was making the most mistakes. We all got our share of closet work except Pete, who is apparently a real pro. And poor Larry was stuck doing priming in the closets, so I guess he'll never be coming out of the closet.
Posted On May 7, 2005 at 1:40 PM
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