I never understood what “seeing red” meant until it happened to me. I’m not proud of this moment. It was about the 100th day in a row my four-year-old son had done every thing in his tiny power to subvert our leaving the house in time to get him to nursery school and me to work. Countless other things had already gone wrong that morning: broken washing machine, blown fuse, and spider mites on my ficus tree. And there was little Ethan sitting shoeless, part way up the stairs after being asked a dozen times to bring them down.
I exploded. I ran up the stairs with a look in my eyes that so frightened him he turned and began scrambling upwards on all fours, my foot right between his legs. “You’re kicking me!” he cried.
“You’re damn right I am! Move it!” And my field of vision turned red.
I was as frightened by my rage as he was, and thank god things de-escalated after that. (I also took a stress reduction workshop and learned a powerful technique for letting go of stuck emotions–still use it today.)
Seeing red isn’t just about anger though. Red is the color that connects the entire mammalian kingdom because it is the color of blood. We also associate red with high emotion, courage, war, royalty, power, love and lust. Also Republican politicians (red ties for the men, red dresses and blond hair for the women).
Unfortunately 8% of men and .5% of women cannot see red (or green). The colors register in dull neutral tones. People with color blindness aren’t aware of differences among colors that are obvious to the rest of us, and may not even realize it until they’re tested. More details here. If you’ve never seen the videos where the guy is surprised with a gift of the EnChroma glasses which allow the color-blind wearer to see the world as the rest of us do, you must do so at once, here. If you don’t cry watching these videos you have no soul.
Everyone can wear some form of red. Maybe not bright crimson, but there are hundreds of shades of red—with a tinge of blue for folks with cool skin tones, a tinge of yellow for those with warm skin tones, tinted with white for a softer effect or shaded with black for more formality. I have dozens among my color sticks. Here’s Berry, a beautiful Crystal Spring, glowing in her soft red.
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LAST CHANCE till autumn for my Clutter-Clearing Class at Clark, 7-9pm Tuesday eves 4/16-23. Yeah, that’s in just a few days. Register here, like now.
You have just two weeks to register for Going Gray Gracefully, Tuesday eves 4/30-5/7 and THEN… ta-daaaa…
I leave for a month in France May 8, so if you want a custom color palette for yourself or for your home, better contact me ASAP.
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