Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Color Purple

It’s rather gratifying that my favorite color is also the name of a Pulitzer prize winning novel, a smash-hit musical and a critically acclaimed film. Not to mention, it is hailed as the color of royalty. One of my favorite pieces of jewelery is a heart-shaped amethyst set in a heart-shaped pendant that I have worn almost constantly around my neck these past five years.

My favorite clothes are purple. It is also the color of my favorite pen, bedspread, scarf, and even plant (the Wandering Jew)!! I must point out that I didn’t buy, make or plant these things because they were purple and thus elevate them to “favorite” status. All of these small belongings, I have cherished in their own right, and they all happen to be purple.

An interesting sideline about my lovely color: Purple is often used to represent the mortal sin of pride. It is also associated with sorrow and mourning, as in purple vestments worn by priests during the season of Lent. However, for me purple symbolizes neither pride nor sorrow – it is beauty and joy, freshness and love, vivacious and vibrant. And before I start to wax poetical, I’ll stop going on about purple, save to quote Robert Burns, who called my color, "… proud, imperial purple".

"Purple-is fashionable twice-
This season of the year,
And when a soul perceives itself
To be an Emperor."
~Emily Dickinson

2 comments:

coolmallu said...

A purple comment for your purple post.

I wanted the comment to be in purple color. After dabbling with HTML tags for sometime, I gave up. Do you have any clue how to do it? Sorry, my idea couldn't implemented.

Azalea said...

No clue :(
But thanks for the thought.