When I started at my current place of work, way back in 1987, I decided
early on that I would use a red pen whenever possible. “Red for danger,” I
thought. Also, I remembered all my
teachers who’d used red pen to correct, and comment, and chastise. It was my turn to see what it felt like.
Well, it is now almost twenty-five years later, and I keep a
whole spectrum of colors of pen at my desk. Red is still my favorite: it stands
out, and it’s hard to ignore, and sometimes (as when I’m correcting or amending
an employee data document) it is absolutely essential.
But I bought some Flair pens on a whim some time back, and I
am now completely enamored with purple.
Purple is rich and royal.
It’s also gay sometimes, depending on whom you ask. (Did you know
that the creator of the modern pride flag, Gilbert Baker, assigned meanings to
each of the colors? Purple is “spirit.” I like it.) “Lavender” has for a long
time been a code word for the gay community. (For a long time I wore a lavender star on my
lapel, and told people it was the symbol for gay rights. One of my gay friends
told me that I shouldn’t wear it because it might get people riled up. I
laughed. “No one even knows what it means,” I said, and I was right, because –
let’s face it – I’d made the meaning up.)
I need to buy some more purple Flair pens. They take me back
to my childhood, when Flair pens were new.
And I can tell people it’s a political statement, and they
actually believe me!
People: purple is a color,
for god’s sake!
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