Four years ago, my seven year old granddaughter inspired me to write this story.
The happy little girl was skipping beside her grandmother as she walked. She watched their inseparable companions make the same moves they made. Her long curly ponytail bounced up and down as if keeping step with each skip. Her inseparable companion’s ponytail did the same thing. She ran slightly ahead and her inseparable companion ran with her. Grom and her own inseparable companion continued to walk to catch up.
“Grom, our shadows are blue!” She immediately looked up in the sky. “Look Grom, the light from the sun is blocked from our shadow area. This caused blue lights from other parts of the sky. This is why our shadows look blue.”
“This is so cool,” she exclaimed! “Do you know why we have shadows,” she asked?
Without waiting for an answer, she was eager to share her knowledge. “Our bodies block the light and then the shapes appear on the ground. They become our companions. Sometimes we have regular shadows and sometimes we have blue shadows. Now, we have blue shadows!”
Grom thought her granddaughter was very smart. She was amazed at what she was learning. She had previously quizzed Grom on the meaning of opaque, translucent, and transparent when they were watching television together. Confident that Grom had learned from her earlier quizzes, she continued. “Just like a television, our body is opaque and light can’t pass through it. We learned this in science class!”
Grom’s granddaughter was completing first grade and loved to watch the moon, sun, and stars in the sky. When she was a baby, Grom lovingly called her Moonface. She always had a story to tell about the moon. Now, she was learning about the moon, sun, and stars. This was the future generation Grom hoped and prayed for. Her eyes welled with tears of joy! When she was a little girl, she didn’t have the same opportunities.
Grom, or Francie Mae, grew up in poverty in the South. Because of unjust laws, children of different races went to different schools. These same laws made it hard for people of darker races to get decent jobs. This group of people was treated different based on their skin color. This was called discrimination, and it was not the right way to treat people. When Francie Mae was a child, she struggled to understand the world around her. She did not want future generations to struggle to understand the same world.
Moonface was curious about why people had different skin colors. It was important for her family to talk about race, prejudice and discrimination so she would understand. She learned that race only describes a person’s physical traits like skin color or hair color. It does not describe their abilities. Like Moonface, most people share a beautiful mixture of different races.
Grom and Moonface’s family thought it was time that she learned about how people can live, work and play in this world together. She was a little multiracial girl and her seven year old mind was developing. Children are not colorblind and they should be taught about race. Everyone notice differences. Some people have darker skin and some people have lighter skin. Some people have blonde or brown straight hair and some people have thicker curly hair. Children are discoverers. Even though these differences should be celebrated, there are some people who have prejudices against people who are different than them. That’s why Moonface’s family thinks it is important and okay to talk about race.
Moonface was told that many people worked hard to make the laws better. They wanted life to be better for everyone. Moonface went to a neighborhood school with children of all races. She was old enough to notice skin color. Many of her classmates had different skin colors. Her best friend had skin that was lighter than hers. Moonface had long thick curly hair. Her friend’s hair was brown and straight. She had many more friends with different skin colors and hair textures. The physical features of her friends didn’t matter and it doesn’t determine character. They were friends because they liked each other, were kind to each other, and enjoyed similar activities.
Moonface’s mother and father have different skin colors. She calls her mother’s skin color brown and her father’s skin color peach. Many of her family members have different skin colors. Her mother’s sister and Grom have a brown skin color. Her father’s sister and parents has a peach skin color. Although she notices the different skin colors of her loving family, they all had blue shadows as their inseparable companions!
Discrimination happens when people treat people who don’t look like them in a different way. People who discriminate may develop an opinion based on a person’s skin color. Sometimes, these opinions hurt groups of people and prevent them using their abilities. It is important to correct these opinions so everyone can be successful.
Moonface was a budding artist like Grom’s brothers. She enjoyed drawing pictures of her family members. When she colored her father’s picture, she searched for peach crayons. When she colored her mother’s picture, she searched for brown crayons. When she drew the family, she had a beautiful mixture of happy peach and brown faces.
Moonface understood what her family told her. She learned about mixing colors prior to first grade. “Grom, just like the blue shadow, we don’t see blue in every color. Did you know that?” She continued, “for example, an apple is red. We see the red in the apple with our eyes but we don’t see the other colors.” She glanced at Grom to make sure she understood. She continued, “Blue is the color of most shadows. Most people think shadows are black. In the color wheel, blue is one of the primary colors. The other primary colors are red and yellow. Sometimes you have to mix them with the other colors. For example, if you mix two primary colors together, you get secondary colors. My favorite color is green, so if you mix yellow and blue together, you get green! “By now, she was really excited and continued to explain the color wheel to Grom.
“There are other colors you can get by mixing primary and secondary colors together. When I don’t have a peach crayon, I mix two colors together. Guess what else I learned Grom?” Again, before Grom could answer, she continued in an excited voice. “My teacher said we can make shadows of different colors. My mom helped me. All I need is a red, green and blue lightbulb. We turned off the light and shine the bulbs on the white walls of my room. We put a pencil close to the screen and when we moved it around, we saw different size shadows.”
“Grom, things have a shadow because they block light from the sun. The sizes changes if you are close or far away from the light. When I walk in the morning, my shadow is so long. Sometimes, I don’t see my shadow when the sun is out. When it is raining or cloudy, I don’t see it either.”
Grom was happy that Moonface was learning about shadows and colors. Both can tell a story. Grom thought about the time when she was working in the cotton fields when she was a little girl. She was not much older than Moonface. She learned to tell time by her shadow. When her shadow was no longer seen, she knew it was time to take a much needed lunch break from the hot sun.
Crayons and paint come in many beautiful colors. Most children love color and like to use them to make many things of beauty. If the child uses one color, the picture would be boring. The beautiful colors mixed together make a beautiful picture.
When we are outdoors, we may all have blue shadows when the light from the sun is blocked from the shadow area. The sky scatters some of the blue light and our shadows appear blue. When we are indoors, our shadow appears darker.
We may see shadows of different shades depending on the light sources. If we are a beacon of light for mankind, we are able to value and enjoy the different shades.
In real life, shadows often appear to be a different color than the area around them. For example, outdoors on a sunny day, shadows can look blue. The shadows appear blue because the bright yellow light from the sun is blocked from the shadow area, leaving only indirect light and blue light from other parts of the sky.
Like a color wheel, our multiple colors are useful in creating beautiful and harmonious relationships.
Francie Mae. July 27, 2024
My granddaughter, Mya, is now eleven years old, and is no longer called Moonface. She’s an athlete, honor student, crocheter, and a budding artist and author. I’m grateful for her insight and wisdom beyond her years!