(Crayola is a registered trademark of Binney & Smith, Inc.)
Well I started with a piece of paper
And a pencil in my hand
And I waded into representing
As I saw it the lay of the land
But the tools I was using and ideas I was abusing
They were only black and white
And with only two colors in my picture of life
Well it sure wasn't much of a sight
But then I found myself a box of crayons
And I started coloring in
Tooling through and erasing outlines
Just as sure as I'd pencilled 'em in
Got rid of them borders between me and other people
And I thought it made things pretty clear
But with only eight crayons in my starter set
Well you know I came a little too near
To throwing my life away
On a picture'd never be complete
Being limited and burned by the knowledge
And the wisdom I'd just happened to meet
Restricting my vision and making my decisions
With an eight-color view of life
Well I thought that I was ready
But my reason it was steady
So I hit the store looking for more
Emotional Crayolas
But then I found myself a bigger box of crayons
You know it must have been a twenty-four
And I started seeing colors in the picture
That I never could have seen before
Right then right there I was ready
To be painting for the rest of my life
Creating picture after picture
In a situation that was full of strife
Throwing my life away
On a picture'd never be complete
Being limited and burned by the knowledge
And the wisdom I'd just happened to meet
Restricting my vision and making my decisions
With a twenty-color view of life
Well I thought that I was ready
But my reason it was steady
So I hit the store looking for more
Emotional Crayolas
But now I know that I've got myself the biggest
Set of crayons time and money can buy
I'm seeing colors like sepias and umbers
Well darling you know it ain't no lie
When I say this is the way
That I'd hoped the picture'd look
From way before I'd even started to draw
But in the glory that I'm seeing
And the joy in my being
There's a rapture that I never foresaw
While I was throwing my life away
On a picture'd never be complete
Being limited and burned by the knowledge
And the wisdom I'd just happened to meet
Restricting my vision and making my decisions
With a double-digit view of life
Well I thought that I was living
But the colors that you're giving
Make me see what I was missing before
Emotional Crayolas