Personal Response to Diane Acherman't "Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall"
Why do rainbows stretch across the sky in arcs? Why does moss grow on the north side of trees? Why do toads 'croak' and frogs 'ribbit'?
Why do animal eyes glow in the dark?
Why don't rabbits make a sound?
Why do we have ten fingers and ten toes?
Why do cats always land on their feet?
Why are oceans blue, lakes green, rivers brown, tap water clear?
Why do onions make us cry?
Why do we yawn?
Why is fire orange?
Why is it we count sheep in our sleep and not fish?
And why does everything taste like chicken?
It is a lot more fun to make up your own story behind these mysteries than it is to know the answer. In Ackerman's stroy of "Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall" she does put a rather fun, fantasy-like spin on it, intead of just stating the fact that the chlorophyll is no longer produced which makes the green pigment of the leaf and so the other colours show through. But still fantasy is fun and fact is flat.
Why do spiders have eight legs?
Why are dairy cows black and white?
Why do we cry when we laugh?
Why are eggs oval?
Why are there stars?
Why is ice cold?
Why is a foot twelve inches?
Why are rules made to be broken?
Why is the moon full only once a month?
And why do wolves howl at the moon?
I'm sure I could come up with dozens more of these questions. I could question everything around me, the workings of everyone's mind, the purpose behing everything but then that would be going overboard. In our fantasies we need to know when to stop. But why? Why must I stop? Why can't I just go on and on? Why can't I drag this out to fill the next half dozen pages? Why? Why? Why?
Going too far with out fantasies or always living in a fantasy world would cause us to miss out on the real world, a world that we must live in, in order to survive. Our fantasies are just a way of escaping for a short while, to get away from the chaos of every day life. That is, in our fantasy world we are the master and creator; what we say goes -- the sky can be pink, rabbits can meow, ice can be warm and everything can taste like salmon.
Of course there is a way to live in your fantasy world for a good part of your life. You can be as crazy as you want, you can be as unconventional as you want, you can do anything you want, and all you need to is to be a writer. Writing for a living lets you make up fantasies for others, share your wishes with others, and have fun with the real world. No wonder artists and writers are crazy; they spend too much time in their own heads.