A Red Stamp

"If lilies are lily white if they exhaust noise and distance and even dust, if they dusty will dirt a surface that has no extreme grace, if they do this and it is not necessary it is not at all necessary if they do this they need a catalogue."

                                  -From Objects in Tender Buttons by Gertrude Steiner

It was a week ago when I received this abnormal story in class from my english teacher, Lacy. I was suppose to seek the meaning of one of the story in Tender Buttons. Quickly I skimmed through each of the eight stories listed on the paper since I was rushed to pick one as soon as possible. I couldn't really understand the first seven stories, but the last story listed I felt confident into looking at. It was called "The Red Stamp." Although I was not a hundred percent in comprehension, I was looking very hard at the words. Sometimes I would even scratch my head to help me dig in. The beginning of the phrase, "If lily are lily..." caught my attention because somehow this writer questions the identity of a lily. The very last part of the story, "if they do this and it is not necessary it is not at all necessary if they do this they need a catalogue," tells me that something needs to be changed in order to make things back to normal. It took me a while to figure it out, but there was not a right or wrong. I knew I had to be creative so I played around with the story and I finally agreed with my mind what this piece meant to me.

Overall Message:  If I am not who I am, or if I act like somebody I'm not, I need to stop imitating and start being original.