I’ve always loved the color blue. Until recently, I didn’t even realize how many pieces of clothing in my closet were some shade of blue or another. A lot apparently! And I don't know if it's weird to have “mindful” thoughts about a color but it happened a lot this week. In my defense, I have weird thoughts about a lot of mundane things, so 🤷🏾‍♀️.

A couple of months back, I saw the comedy special Nanette by Hannah Gadsby. She expressed her thoughts on blue and pink as gender signifiers - and lots more. It’s an AMAZING special on Netflix, you should watch it).

“…Blue if anything, is a feminine color. It really is full of contradictions.
Blue is a cold color. It’s on the cold end of the spectrum. But the hottest part of the flame…blue!
If you’re feeling blue - you’re sad, but optimism = blue skies ahead!… A blueprint is a plan, but if something happens that’s not on the plan.. where does that come from? Out Of The Blue!’”

— Hannah Gadsby

I was on the subway this past Monday, rewatching the special to pass the time, and it sparked a thought.

I got to thinking about how impactful the color blue actually is in our daily lives. There are literally countless songs that describe intense joy or despair using the color blue. Basin Street Blue by Louis Armstrong, Blue by Leann Rimes, Backstreet Boys’ Black & Blue album (so good!), Blue Moon by Rod Stewart, Blue Eyes by Elton John, and so on…

The color is in so many phrases and idioms we use in expressing ourselves. You get sad and say “I’m feeling blue” or “I’ve got the blues” or “I’m in a blue funk”. Occasionally some poor sap gets “beaten black and blue”, and if you’re royalty, then you’re “born of blue blood”. If you have to make a really tough choice we say you’re “between the devil and the deep blue sea”. I don’t even know how we came up with that last one😄.

Whether or not you agree with Hannah's sentiments, she makes a good point. Blue is a contradiction; a total oxymoron in itself.

Oxymoron:
A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect OR apparently contradictory terms in conjunction.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

See, the thing is “blue” is not alone, is it? Life itself - and the choices we have to make as we live it - is a huge oxymoron.

Every day, every moment is full of choices, most of which we find is fairly unfair. The more you grow, the less perfection you seek. You learn to thrive in organized chaos; be a fine mess. You find that odds are rarely even, and almost everything exists in constant perpetuity - after all, we say the only constant thing is change. We stay anticipating unanticipated outcomes. We go into rooms constantly trying to act naturally, being either hopeful pessimists or hopeless optimists. In our interactions with one another, we find that similar differences exist between us. We're all extraordinary humans - "abnormal" in one way or another - trying our best to prove to each other that we're normal.

Whatever the case, I hope we learn to make living itself an art to actively pursue.

And maybe I’m giving a “basic” color like blue too much credit. I’m not trying to make a case for building the color into your wardrobe…LOL! Chances are you already have a lot of blues to wear. I had a thought and I'm sharing it!

But, nice work, blue. I want to be like you when I grow up. Low-key, cool, but definitely there!