Follow the Yellow-Brick Road (A World of Color, Day Four)

Note: This is part 4 in a series of posts titled A World of Color. You can read the previous posts here: Introduction, Red, and Orange.



From the shimmer of Midas' golden touch to the pucker of the lips from a lemon's bite to the tapping of toes to the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, today's color is associated with things bright, cheerful, and appetizing.

Yellow is the sun. It is representative of happiness and energy, cheerfulness, and mental activity. When paired with purple, it speaks of royalty and Easter. Color therapists believe yellow can relieve depression, improve memory, energize, and stimulate the appetite.

Culture, of course, comes into play. Besides the obvious linkage of the color yellow to Asians, it can mean various things in various settings. In medieval times, yellow represented gallantry, but over time that meaning was lost in many places, and today, at least in the West, it is associated more with cowardice (one source said it is still connected to courage in Japanese culture). In Egypt, yellow is used for mourning, and it can be used to represent a dead person in a theater production in some places.

The Cherokees associated yellow with trouble and strife, while Apaches considered it one of their four sacred colors (representing the east, the originating point of the sun). And, of course, yellow helped direct Dorothy as she searched for the Emerald City in her ruby red shoes.



More guys in yellow...

What Word Rhymes with Orange? (A World of Color, Day Three)

Note: This is part 3 in a series of posts titled A World of Color. You can read the previous posts here: Introduction and Red.

I suppose I should explain a bit about the reason for these posts. Besides the fact that it was fun to hunt down color-themed photos, I have been interested since college (where I completed a youth counseling major and had to take various psychology classes) as to the meaning of colors. It only takes a moment of thinking for us to understand how color can evoke emotion and influence our thoughts (for example, think of the colors red and green together...what do you think of? or perhaps if you were an Iraqi, and you saw the colors red, white, and blue....might that cause some emotion within you?). But we don't always give much active thought to color's meaning. So I am using these posts to examine some of those. I hope you find it interesting as I have.



If red is a sweltering summer day with 100% humidity, orange is a pleasantly-warm day with a nice breeze blowing through. Orange is energetic but not overbearing. Created by mixing red and yellow, it holds some of the passion of red but mixes in the happiness of yellow. It is a color of transition, seen both in the changing leaves of autumn and the pumpkins of Halloween, signaling that summer is over and winter is approaching.

Interestingly, researchers have discovered that the use of the color orange actually has a physical effect upon its viewers, increasing oxygen to the brain, stimulating mental activity, appetite, and digestion. It is considered in some cultures to be a color of youth and health, no doubt influenced by its appearance in the skin of citrus fruits. In medieval times, it represented strength and endurance. But some places consider dark orange to be the color of deception.

Some Native American groups use orange to represent learning and kinship. And it can be the color of flamboyance. On a personal note, I have found it interesting that I tend to gravitate to orange clothing, and receive more compliments when wearing orange than most any other color; then while researching this post, I discovered that orange is the color associated with Leos, which is my sign.



If you have a few minutes and want to try something interesting, take this quiz (click on graphic):



You have to wait a couple minutes between the two rounds for the most accurate results, but I found the results to be very interesting, painfully accurate in fact at a couple points (enough that I don't really want to share the results here!).

Orange you glad you get to look at more pictures?....

Painting the Town Red (A World of Color, Day Two)

If we were assigning adjectives to colors, and I said "intense", you very likely would immediately gravitate to the color red. Red likes attention. It claimed the uppermost spot on the rainbow and thus the starting spot in lists of colors. Red shows up when we express our love (be my Valentine) or our anger (he's seeing red); as one person noted, red is both Cupid and the Devil.

Red chases celebrity, showing up when important people are around (and the red carpet is rolled out). Red is controlling, always commanding us to STOP.

You will want to be aware of the culture in which you move if you use red. In China, red indicates prosperity and happiness, but in South Africa, it is the color of mourning. Brides in the East will often wear red dresses, while those in the West generally do that only if it is a second marriage. (source)

Well, it is getting late, and if I don't want to have red eyes in the morning, I must get to bed. Check back tomorrow, for day 3 of A World of Color, and until then, enjoy the pictures!



It's a red-letter day....

A World of Color (Introduction)

In celebration of the fact that I can once again post to my blog, I am going to begin a series of posts today that I had originally intended to save for a later date. But I hope you will see that I have put significant effort into these posts, and perhaps that will help to stir up some excitement for this blog again after its unexpected compulsory hiatus!



At the start of September, I stepped aboard an airplane and left a very dreary Chicago for cheerful, relaxing Cancun, Mexico. The entire vacation was picture-perfect--exactly what I needed to regroup after a number of months filled with stress and anxiety.

One of the wonderful things about a vacation such as this, in which cell phones are left behind, internet and e-mail unavailable, and normal life responsibilities put on hold, is that we have opportunities just to step back and reflect on things that we tend to overlook in the hustle and bustle of life. The scent of the ocean breeze. The wonder of a simple melody sung by young children. The blessing of a healthy body that can take in all of the amazing sensory experiences of the world.

As I boarded the ferry that would take me to Cozumel Island and my first-ever snorkeling experience, I looked out at the beaches of Playa del Carmen, 45 minutes away from Cancun. My camera captured this picture of the warm, clear day, with its amazingly-white beaches, lazy clouds floating in a deep blue sky, and most memorably, the deep turquoise blue water that attempted to steal the spotlight from all the rest of the surrounding beauty.



The picture of that scene, imprinted both on a photograph and in my mind, started me thinking about the world of color in which we live. From the fiery colors of a summer sunset to the fragile hues of a flower's petals, ours is a world of endless variety and range in color.

I often am teased about my wardrobe. When somebody asks me what is my favorite color, I generally will respond, "cheerful" or "bright". The few outfits in my closet that are sedate and restrained generally don't get worn too often.

It is hard-wired inside us to crave variety. Perhaps not everyone will wear loud, tacky shirts without shame or self-consciousness, but we all enjoy seeing the season's new colors. It is this craving that compels us to stop and point when we see a rainbow appear in the sky. Nobody has to teach us that the strands of color lined together in the rainbow are "beautiful." We know it instinctively. It resonates from somewhere deep within us, just as we would agree as to the beauty of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel or the grandeur of nature's landscapes.



So why is it, I wondered to myself as I thought of the Caribbean waters, that so many cannot see the beauty in the variety of colors among the people of the world? A person would be regarded as odd or foolish if he said, "I'm only into orange clothing. I won't wear any other color, because orange is the only color I like." None of us would criticize the person for having a preference for orange clothing, perhaps it being his favorite color. But to be so limited in his taste that he cannot see beauty in any other color of clothing? We would feel sad for the person because he has so limited himself from the beauty that is so easily accessible around him in clothing stores everywhere.

The comparison here is obvious. Society would label a person as odd or eccentric if he had a monochrome wardrobe, but it barely bats an eye at a statement such as, "I'm only into white guys." One of my main motivations for starting this blog was a realization of how my life has been enriched and beautified by my interactions with people of different "colors" and the observation that relatively few places on the internet celebrate the beauty of diversity and variety. If I had unlimited time and no life, I could start several more blogs, celebrating the beauty of men of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Those who have visited the sister blog to this site, Auto-Gratification, have undoubtedly recognized this love for the beautiful men of the world.

So I invite you to join me over the next several days, as we explore the amazing World of Color in which we live. May we each do our part to help those within our spheres of influence to see the beauty in all people, regardless of their background, language, culture, and yes, color.

And, as always, some colorful Asian guys for you....