Magenta

Magenta. I think that's the color I saw this morning as the sun was rising in the midst of the clouds. It was as if the color was being created on the edges of the dawn as the approaching cool-front worked furiously to quiet its presence. Quietly, powerfully beautiful, magenta tickled the darkening skies with joy and anticipation, inviting a response which never came, praying for a change which never occurred. Then, in the next instant, magenta was gone, replaced with the darkening hues of gathering storm. We can't say we weren't given a chance to embrace a different reality, an opportunity to enter a different way in the moments before us, yet before magenta could do its work, grey settled the decision and radiance was ushered into another room.

Magenta.

Magenta got me thinking about how colors are regarded. Think about it. Say the names of some colors: red . . . yellow . . . black . . . white . . . brown. What are the images which come to your mind? The flag? The sunrise? Night? Day? Soil? Leather? Could it be that our culture has also trained us to see much more in colors, even by the mere mention of their names: Republican? Democrat? Communist? Race? Nationality? Ethnicity? At what point did we move from marveling at the hue of a color to color being that which differentiates, separates and defines the human experience?

Recently, while discussing this topic with a really good friend and brother in faith, he said to me, "You have no idea what it means to be black." To which I immediately responded, "And you have no idea what it means to be a white . . . and despised for it." We immediately began laughing, for in both the truth and ludicrousness of the moment, we realized that each of us used our personal experience of color as a shield to hide behind and as a stick with which to beat others. Our cultures have indoctrinated us well.

Maybe that's why I like magenta: to my knowledge, it hasn't shown up on anyone's political map, economic indicator, racial profile, or ethnic differentiation guide. Magenta peeks out at us in the early morning moments of the day and in the late evening whispers of dusk's approach. Magenta. Possibly we would do well to consider the lesson of non-primary colors and set aside our penchant for dividing and defining the human experience by color codes. It seems to have worked out pretty well for God all these years . . . maybe there is something yet to be learned there. Magenta. Thank you, God, for magenta mornings!