The leaves out here are gorgeous. I am bombarded with new brilliance at every bend in the road. Anyone who has seen Vermont in autumn knows what I am talking about. Every night when I begin to fall asleep I see reds, oranges, and yellows behind my closed eyelids.

I was thinking the other day how amazing it is that these brilliant colors really are the true colors of the leaves. Leaves are only green because of the chlorophyll they make. When they first open in spring they show a hint of their true colors. The new leaves are pastel shades of the brilliance they show in fall. Then for most of their lives these true colors are hidden, surfacing again right before they die.

I thought how like leaves many people are. When we are babies we are not constrained by social norms, and some of our true nature comes shining through. As we grow, we so often put up defensive walls. We dress certain ways to avoid getting teased. We follow the rules so we don’t stick out. It is often only in old age that we once again feel free to put aside all the constraints which we lived with. Our guards come down and we tell people more easily how much we love them or what we really think about something. We wear whatever the hell we want to wear, and at least for me, I am caring more about honesty than politness. If I want to go out in a splash of brilliant red, yellow, and orange, I will. Perhaps this is one consolation of aging, though what a world it would be if we all lived our entire lives letting our true brilliance shine.