Best Color
What is the best color to describe you?
My sister and I had a mother who sewed, an aunt who crafted things, and a grandmother who loved to knit. They tended to give us handmade gifts for birthdays and Christmasses, typically identical items, in the form of blankets, quilts, white shirts with fabric paint in original decals and designs, pillowcases, bags, clothes for our generic Barbie™ dolls, and other such things. To differentiate which identical item was given to which of us, our parents, early in our youths, assigned us each a color. Red for me, yellow or blue for my sister, a patch sewn into the item, or a symbol with that color on one edge of the design, or whathaveyou. It made it easier to figure out who owned what.
There was a span of time in which my sister couldn’t remember what her color was, would see my item strewn around the house with its red tag, claim it as hers, and it would end up in her room. I’d bring her out to the living room, where our beanbags rested next to the fireplace, and ask her which was hers. “Yellow,” she’d say immediately. I’d point at the red one, “And that one’s mine, yes?” “Yes,” she’d answer. “So,” I’d reason, “Red is mine, yellow and blue are yours, yes?” “Oh, yeahhh,” she’d acknowledge, and wander off. Weirdo.
So, I have a long-standing history with red. One of my favorite sweaters featured red and white stripes, and my only boyfriend in high school commented quite appreciatively on it. I recently got back into contact with him, actually, and he remarked on it anew. Heh. From the time I was in high school, to just a few years ago, I had an aversion to red. I’d avoid vibrant reds, wanting instead a muted, dark maroon, but usually veering more towards forest greens, dark blues and the like.
I had a brief love affair with purple, due to the preferences of one of my online heroes.
I’ve always had a preference for blue, however. Some say it denotes sadness (someone is feeling blue), while others say it is the color of happiness (Anne McCaffrey’s dragons’ eyes whirled blue and green when most contented and calm, for example). Some resources tout blue as being the color of inspiration, sincerity, and spirituality. Artists use it to depict distance in landscapes–the farther-off hills and mountains take on a blue tint, as they do in real life, due to the way that light refracts through the atmosphere and over the terrain. It is the color of communication, truth, and confidence.
I was amazed a few days ago to find that they’ve yet to be able to develop a genetic, true blue rose–there are naturally occurring flowers that are said to be blue, but due to the pigment still in the flower, it’s more of a mauve purple. Blue roses can still be made only by cutting the stem of a white rose, and allowing it to rest in a vessel of water with blue dye.
I have a hard time finding negative things to say about the color blue. Storm clouds laden not only with rain but with damaging wind and ire are not only dark gray, but take on a most ominous storm blue-gray. In some cultures, people with blue eyes are said to be Other (as in, not human), or in possession of extra, potentially evil powers.
I think the color blue describes me adequately. My mood, my way of being, the way I carry myself, the way I see the world and how the world views me, it’s very blue. It is what draws me and motivates me. Yup, it’ll do.
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Challenge yourself to Holidailies 2009 by writing one entry each day in December.
Can you blog each day for an entire month? Try it!
