My Old House, South Carolina
A curious phenomenon in human experience is the ever changing perception of those colors which are de rigueur and those which are dated and passé. In the late sixties and early seventies rust, orange, gold, yellow, in fact, all of the autumn colors were highly sought after for interior design applications and to be certified fashion chic. Yet, in the late twentieth century the surest way to date oneself and demonstrate a complete lack of style was to wear these same colors and worse yet was to have harvest gold appliances and fixtures in one’s house.
Many a perfectly good refrigerator, sink, and oven were discarded simply because they were gold. Avocado green was close behind. Placing my social standing in jeopardy, I still have an avocado green wall oven in my kitchen and one of my bathrooms is fitted in harvest gold. Say what you wish. The last time the oven was used to make six loaves of banana nut bread; the door color was not an impediment to the final golden brown result. My last lingering hot shower was in no way compromised by harvest gold walls.
During a recent visit to London, I observed many businessmen on the street wearing dark suits with lavender or purple shirts and purple ties. This proved especially common in the more fashionable parts of town. It became a curiosity to me that so many men are wearing these unusual colors. Several months ago during the summer I first noticed this fashion trend among the gallery guards in the national museums. Now in the fall businessmen are wearing them many places. I wonder what these guards were privy to that those businessmen in purple are now just catching on about.
Last month while waiting for a train in Waterloo Station, a large LCD display board was extolling the life-changing virtues of a purple cell phone. My phone is a non-descript gray one and it works just fine. I never was able to determine from the intense animated advertising in front of me what a purple plastic case on my phone would do for my telecommunications infrastructure or my life in general. Perhaps, the same mystical benefits that derive from purple shirts and purple ties also accrue to users of purple cell phones.
Colors have powerful influence on mood and behavior; the discipline known as chromatherapy is devoted to studies evaluating the influence of color on affective states. Well-designed experiments proved that seeing red produces the powerful response associated with the phrase ‘seeing red’ - increased blood pressure, muscle strength, hyper-arousal, even aggression. Red is a color denoting power and danger in many cultures. Men often wear a power tie, a red one meant to clarify authority. Studies at two British universities in Plymouth and Durham suggest athletic teams wearing red will have more success on the field. Green is often perceived as a soothing calming color, one that reminds us of the natural world with its exuberant life. Perhaps, the touted mystical powers of purple will be found to influence cell-phone use and the outcomes of power luncheons in London.
Associations tend to be made in all cultures with specific colors. Response to color is complex, being an admixture of neurophysiology and cultural entrainment. Colors often are assigned important moral and religious values. These vary greatly by culture. Why men in London now wear purple or why people would trash perfectly good cell phones because they are not purple is beyond my analytical skills. Perhaps, there is something about this admixture of color response that is only known to the gurus who hock purple shirts and cell phones.
What is clear is that people in many cultures derive an inordinate sense of self-worth and esteem from being in conformity to current declarations of which is fashionable. Being ‘first on the block’ to have something new is part of being ‘with it.’ We not only need to have the right color we need to be the first to do so, be it on our cars, our dining room walls, or our shirts. Our sense of esteem is often little thicker than the film of latex paint on the wall.
Twenty years ago when I bought my house I decided to paint the front rooms a deep burgundy, because I like the color and it makes a very good background for the assorted Old Master paintings and prints I have collected overseas. What I did not expect to see was a number of other living rooms on my street turn red within the next year or two. Twenty years later the red craze seems to have long passed, yet I still have my red rooms and enjoy them as much as I did twenty years ago. All of the people around me with red rooms have long since changed colors, houses, or spouses in the intervening years.
I can’t but wonder if color preference is not a powerful metaphor for how our lives are progressing, or so often, regressing. When we feel stalled out or discontent we simply go buy another can of paint, find another spouse, or build another house, all decidedly expensive options in the long run. Becoming familiar and bored with our circumstances leads to an ingratitude in our hearts. Unwittingly, we launch ourselves on a trajectory towards a complex set of addictions that cannot be satisfied.
Changing interior colors and décor frequently fuels an ongoing appetite for something new and different in our surroundings, putting us at undue financial and relational risk. After a divorce a friend spent a large chunk of her inheritance to redo her kitchen that had been renovated just three years earlier. It is now harvest gold.
Changing spouses is catastrophic to all parties involved, especially children. We think that someone new and different is going to fix the angst in the interiors of our soul. Hundreds of Internet dating services bank on that widespread belief in the culture. With divorce, houses are sold and countless relationship disrupted. We shop for spouses like we do for paint. A lot of paint gets put out on the curb for the trash haulers. Friends of mine are now on six or more marriages and no happier for their many “I dos.”
Changing neighborhoods for a bigger house on a bigger plot further out only disrupts the social fabric of local community and has lead to the literal abandonment of some of America’s biggest cities. It has lead to unmanageable traffic congestion and air pollution throughout the world.
Changing cars every eighteen months has led to the rise and fall of the greatest industrial empire in the world. It has also lead to the financial ruin of millions of people.
According to one on-line purveyor of purple pigments, the color purple can symbolize nobility, envy, sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nostalgia, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, enlightenment, arrogance, flamboyance, gaudiness, mourning, exaggeration, and the list goes on. An on-line seller of amethyst describes the powerful influence of the color purple. “Purple is the color of good judgment. It is the color of people seeking spiritual fulfillment. It is said if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind. Purple is a good color to use in meditation. Purple has been used to symbolize magic and mystery, as well as royalty. Being the combination of red and blue, the warmest and coolest colors, purple is believed to be the ideal color. Most children love the color purple. Purple is the color most favored by artists.”
Perhaps, the men in purple dress shirts are privy to something that really matters. Perhaps, the Man in a purple robe who died on Calvary has the answers you really want, answers far more important than what color dress shirt you should be seen in or what color cell phone you should use. Perhaps, the Man in a purple robe even knows more than which house or spouse is going to satisfy the deepest itches of your soul.
Give Him a call any time. There is no roaming charge, even if your phone is the wrong color.
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