What Shade Is Your Crazy

"It's not that easy being green

 It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things

 And people tend to pass you over

 Cause you're not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water

 Or stars in the sky

But green's the color of spring

 And green can be cool and friendly-like

 And green can be big like an ocean

 Or important like a mountain

 Or tall like a tree

 When green is all there is to be

It could make you wonder why

But, why wonder why?

Wonder, I'm green and it'll do fine

It's beautiful and I think it's what I wanna be

It ain’t easy being green."

~Kermit the Frog

We all have quirks and idiosyncrasies that make us who we are. I was chatting with one of my girls and she mentioned what she thought was crazy about one of her oddities. My response was, “We all have different shades of crazy!” She immediately came back with, “Mine is lilac, what shade is your crazy?!”

I knew what my color was and is: Chartreuse [pronounced shahr-trooz]. My love relationship with chartreuse started around undergrad graduation in 2006. For some reason I couldn’t get enough of the lime greenness. I noticed that color section of my closet was growing rapidly.

Growing up, I was in love with the color purple. Everything was purple. I even painted the walls in my room purple and adorned anything that belonged to me with some shade of purple. Don’t get me wrong, I still like purple; it’s a very nice color. Purple is the color of royalty. Yet I am not drawn to green. I don’t have everything green as I did with purple, but when it comes to expressing myself, I notice if there are color options, I veer toward the lime.

Our conversation about shades of crazy got me to thinking about what is the draw of chartreuse for me? I recalled the moment I crowned green my signature color. During my metamorphosis, I kept hearing the phrase “Live Out Loud” in my head. Instantly, I linked the thought with my new fascination with lime green. That’s what I was doing, no longer living silently. No longer was I holding in my opinion, allowing others to dictate my direction or silence me. I found my voice…and it’s chartreuse, baby!

I decided to research green and was even more surprised it is the color of fertility and life. That is exactly what the hue has represented to me, new life. Green also symbolizes self-respect and wellbeing. I am not making this up! The more I read about green the more astonished I became with my connection and similarity to its meaning. Green symbolizes balance and also means learning, growth and harmony. This is exactly what I have sought and attained. This tint perfectly reflects and represents who I have fought to become.

With my growth and transformation, I have maintained my peculiarities and remain ever persnickety. My mother called me persnickety for years and I never knew what it meant. From context clues I assumed it had to do with my desire to maintain organized surroundings. Several years back, I looked it up to refute her labeling me. Uhhh, let’s just say after reading I kept my mouth shut. How could one word say so much about me and where did my mother learn that word anyway!  Even the synonyms listed I’ve argued I’m not: dainty, delicate, fastidious, picky. I finally conceded to my prissiness and persnicketiness.  C. Love’s crazy is a lovely shade of chartreuse.

 

Funk-O-Meter = 3.5

Days Without 'Cupcake' = 11