Red

I am obsessed with red. I found this ketchup colored work bag and never really looked back. I’d always heard that red was a “power color.” I’d never really felt that though. My prom dress was red, but that prom was filled with disappointment and apologizing for a man I thought I loved.

I like the word “red.” It’s a nice, simple consonant, vowel, consonant word where each letter actually makes the sound it’s supposed to (as a tutor teaching reading, this is definitely a rarity even with CVC words). I love too that “red” is a homophone for “read” as well. Anything related to literature instantly scratches an itch I can’t fully explain.

At work, I’m always wearing my big, Edna Mode glasses that are a dark, raspberry red. I work the front desk and sometimes have parents sit and chat with me while they wait for their kids. One mom noticed my glasses, complimented them, and then told me a story about how she hates the color red. I find it so interesting how we assign value to color. Color appears everywhere in our world. It’s something you can’t avoid. I wonder if this parent, or if people in general, go through the world seeing various colors they’ve assigned value to and then feeling angry, happy, powerful, light because they saw something that was that color. I do find myself seeing red things and feeling better because I saw some beautiful red clock.

My students often ask me what my favorite color is. I think as kids we’re often asked our favorite this or that, and we are expected to develop these preferences. As an adult that works with kids, I’m asked about my favorite things often. There might be something childlike about having a favorite for everything. I enjoy that feeling. There’s a pleasure in the self-awareness it brings for me. I also love anything that makes me feel the childlike sense of wonder that childhood itself and mania provided for me. Knowing my favorite season, book, movie, and color help me feel in myself and my identity, but also make me feel like a kid, waiting for someone to ask “What’s your favorite color?”