On Feeling Blue

And the world's most loved color

“Ritual” by Katherine Bradford, from exhibit at Frye Museum. Those blues!

Dear Beautiful Friends,

Today I took myself out to a cafe, opened a notebook, and wrote one line:

“Yesterday I had the blues.”

How boring, I thought and sipped my eight-dollar cup of French hot chocolate.

I gave it another go.

“Today, I’m still a bit blue.” I finished the sentence and dropped my pen. The word “blue” stood out.

But I like BLUE. It’s such a beautiful color. “Blue sky” = limitless potential, the world’s yours. I’m not blue, I’m blue-tiful! This really tickled the daylights out of me.

This hue says: “You can do anything. Fly little wing, fly.”

I took a gulp of my French cocoa and calculated how much that oversized sip cost me (about 25 cents*). Two Work-From-Home Businessmen entered the cafe, stood in the middle of the place, and looked around. “Are you blue too?” I wanted to call out. Let’s pretend I did.

Take II

Me: “Hey, WFH Businessmen! Do you ever feel blue?”
WFH Businessmen: [Looking at each other] “Do we know you?”
Me: “No, but you might know this guy.”

I held up this color swatch.

The tall one with the basset hound eyes tipped his head.

“Oh, that guy. Yeah. He came to see me last week.”

Tall WFH Businessman held up his hand to reassure his colleague. “Tough bastard, that shade of the blue, but I’m fine now.” And with that, they strode to the counter and ordered drip coffees (about 8.5 cents a sip).

“But look how beautiful it is!” I cried out, pointing to the Blue. They ignored me, even as I told them that Blue is the most loved color in the world. “How can you feel sad-blue when you’ve got these popular-blues on your side?”

Blue: the most loved color, the world over.

“We’re not blue, we’re . . . blue-tiful!” I said with a little shriek.

BLUE-TIFUL!