I think it's more than that though...
I agree that it's about leaving someone, but I think that it kind of centers on how when you've been away for something for a while, or grown old and let memory get to things, you forget all the details about something, and you just remember them for one impression, one singular idea. You don't realize how they have changed, or all of the things that once tied you to them.
But if you don't 'paint the words white', if you don't blanche out all of their color, their vigor, their passion- if you don't let the memory fade with age, and you remember all of the details, then they will always be to you what they were when you left them.
The same with the hitchhiker and the little girl: He becomes to them what they think of him.
I think it's more than that though... I agree that it's about leaving someone, but I think that it kind of centers on how when you've been away for something for a while, or grown old and let memory get to things, you forget all the details about something, and you just remember them for one impression, one singular idea. You don't realize how they have changed, or all of the things that once tied you to them.
But if you don't 'paint the words white', if you don't blanche out all of their color, their vigor, their passion- if you don't let the memory fade with age, and you remember all of the details, then they will always be to you what they were when you left them.
The same with the hitchhiker and the little girl: He becomes to them what they think of him.