It's almost cliche to write about it or even sing about it. Even though many people still write and sing about it. Well I guess that goes to show you just how cliche it truly has become. It has found it's way into artists' abstract and poets' pentameter. In the fashion world it is staple and each and every day we look up hoping to see it...
surely you've guessed by now.....
......................................blue......................................
I was jogging earlier this week, and thinking about music, life, and assorted mysteries (that's right people, my jogs are very intelligent and thought provoking journeys) and somehow landed on the word blue. It has been part of culture, as more than a color, since the late 1700s, believe it or not. Obviously, it has been a part of life since there was a sky. It is arguably the most descriptive, all encompassing color on the market today.
Blue Eyes Cryin in the Rain, Am I Blue, Everyday I Got the Blues, How Blue Can You Get... We could go on and on and on and on.... in music, blue or blues has been used to describe feelings of sadness or loneliness and some bordering on depression. Many times at unrequited love or hard times, these feelings have overwhelmed writers and singers and musicians so much that it had to escape somewhere, and that somewhere was through fingertips, through a pencil, or through a microphone. Wikipedia has this to offer about the blues:
"The term "the blues" refers to the "the blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). Though the use of the phrase in African American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood."
The ironic thing is, this "blue" feeling is so strong that years after these folks felt their pain, upon hearing their morose lyrics, or hear a guitar cry, we also feel, even if in the tiniest of ways, the pain that they have experienced. Amazing. But, to look at it another way, our spirits are often lifted listening to "the blues." Not because we feel better knowing someone suffers more than we do, although that can unfortunately make us feel better at times, but because we realize that we're not going through hard times alone. Maybe we didn't lose our love, but to know that other people have hurt, it makes us feel like it is OKAY to hurt. To express that hurt. To move on. But enough about sadness and heartache, since that is only one side of the blue.
To look up at the sky is not to feel heartache or pain, but to feel a sense of freedom and adventure. To realize how vast the blue is, and how pure; quite an opposition to the feelings we get when we're "blue." This was the thought I had while I was jogging. I feel happy and as if nothing in the world is wrong when I walk outside and look up at a ceiling of blue with no clouds in sight. Like the world is perfect. Yeah, I know it's not, sure; sure feels that way though. Do you not feel that way. It's like nothing is in the way, just the wild blue yonder. I love that feeling because many times it helps to clear my own mind.
Then there's my favorite shade of this magnificent color...
A year ago this month I lost my brother. He was 33. He had the clearest, bluest, purest eyes you can imagine. In his life I saw all the attributes of this color: sadness, freedom, joy. When he was sad, those blue eyes made your heart ache. When he was happy, it was like looking into that ceiling of blue. You couldn't help but be happy and smile with him. The most brilliant collection of hues existed in his eyes. One of the most impressive things about this shade? It was true blue. Devoted and loyal, the most brilliant of all bluedom. Everyone was his friend, and noone was thrown away or cast aside. He was true blue.
Lonely, Sad, Happy, Free, True... what's you're favorite shade?
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