Chalk walk

How cool is this! I have heard of chalk talks but never chalk walks, until this year. As a kid, I never wrote anything on sidewalks before dark, and angry parents always washed it off the next morning. Now it’s not only acceptable, but many cities have set aside a special day for artists of all skills to claim a few sections of concrete on the town green to create their own chalk masterpiece.

Danbury, Connecticut, held its annual chalk walk this past Saturday. In less than three hours, hundreds of people created mini-masterpieces around the town green. There were couples, families, dads and daughters, and dads and sons. Some were skilled artists like this couple and others, well, not so much. It was a rare opportunity to see a gallery, albeit a sidewalk gallery, emerge from the concrete. But like so many things lately, an hour later it was all washed away by a torrential downpour never to be seen again, until next year, maybe.

I guess sidewalk masterpieces are like sandcastles. People put so much joy and effort into their creations knowing full well that they will be destroyed the first time that water hits them. But like sandcastles, it’s not the end result that’s important; it’s that brief escape from reality that really matters.