Orange?

Way back in October of 2001 I found myself starting on plan B. I hadn’t known I would need a plan B, so to be honest, it wasn’t even a plan. I was moving into a lifeless two bedroom apartment on my way to divorce.  Asserting my neglected manhood I bought a black couch and a glass dining room table with black chairs. The stores were full of Halloween decorations and orange was featured prominently.  At IKEA I picked up some orange throw pillows and orange became my official accent color.  I was going BOLD. I added red and yellow pillows as they complimented the orange and black that had either actively or passively become a theme that I would call my own.

The vibrant colors served as a visual illustration of the positive energy that was present now that I was free from the negativity that had come to drag all of my family down. I embraced a bold palette to further separate me from the country beige that I had tolerated at best.

My high school colors were orange and gold (yellow was the stand in for gold a majority of the time) but that didn’t really hold any sway in 2001.  It only provided me some familiarity with the challenges of claiming an allegiance to orange.   Orange has become a color of freedom movements around the world and without intending to do so, it became that for me.  Freedom from oppression, freedom from negativity, freedom from deception. Freedom to be my true self.

Grandson Kyson David stylin' the orange

After I met Hottie she accepted my orange allegiance and has come to support it.  In my head orange remains a color signifying positive energy and Hottie is a big part of that.  When we were furnishing the cabin and needed cooking utensils Hottie managed to assemble a quiver of orange cooking weaponry. 

So if you ask me why orange; you may hear the preceding story, or you may not.  I believe that the origin is less important than the ongoing theme of positive energy and looking forward.

Orange on Wayne.  Orange on Garth.