Next time you’re in Walmart’s parking lot (for me, likely later today), look out over the vehicles parked there. There are about three colors: gray, black, and white. Don’t focus on the few exceptions (red or maroon make an appearance); see that most cars today are a slightly different shade of those three colors. Here’s a graph to prove over the last 50 years, green has been all but squeezed from the vehicle color wheel, and red is the next victim in line:
I feel like I say this too much, but stay with me.
I can only guess the reason. There are deep philosophical guesses, one being something called “chromaphobia.” It sounds made up, but chromaphobia is where humans tend to fear color as evidence of being unserious or frivolous. As a result, we’ve slowly taken any hint of the fun of color and relegated it to the corners of society that are trying to sell us something or lead us to make bad decisions (think casinos and fast food choices).
There are also economic excuses from the automobile industry. After all, they can sell cars with zero personality to way more people. But I’d guess it costs no more money to paint something a beautiful, eye-dazzling color than it does East German Gray. Will they still charge more? Of course.
Don’t settle
Why are we settling? Even our homes are painted in resale-friendly hues while we’re still living in them. And yet, this life has so much available to us in beauty and joy, and we are opting for what serves the automobile industry or allows us to blend in. We are reducing ourselves to more expeditious versions of us for what reason? To keep auto-exec fat cats in silk pajamas? Or maybe make sure our neighbors approve of us? “Man, what do my neighbors think of our canary yellow hatchback?” was my thought at 2 a.m. last night. No, it wasn’t. But here’s a picture of our Honda so you can laugh at me over lunch with friends.
Get over it, Osborn, get your boring Alcatraz-drab car, and move on. Who do you think you are? Andy Warhol?
Well, I’ve been making this observation about cars for some time. Given what I do and the size of the town I live in, the expectation to wave at people I know is high. But these days I unfortunately can’t tell one car from another. So, I end up waving at more people who likely wonder who I am because they’re in cars I think I know.
All this spills over to more of our lives. Vivid color is seen as less educated, less serious, and frankly for people who make poor choices. Think I’m wrong? What do you think of when you think of business icon Steve Jobs or his many copycats? Plain black tee?
Most people outside Hollywood are expected to mirror the joyless look business execs appear in. Why? Cause we’re rich? Or does being dull, neutral, pale, and lusterless directly add to our bottom line?
Dress for the JOY you want
All this came crashing in when I considered what Ingrid Fetell Lee said in her book Joyful: The Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. She rhapsodized about the joys of color. For humans, vivid color has been an evolutionary cue to show us where we can find plentiful ripe food. But in modern times, it can keep our minds active and adventurous. Besides, color is just more fun.
Color choice can be a routine invitation to retreat for the worth challenged. To stay small. To be ignored and shrink. But Lee changed a saying with one letter, which was a nice challenge for me. She said, “Dress for the joy you want”. The more familiar saying, “Dress for the job you want,” invites us to get in line, get grayed out, and acquiesce to expectations through monochrome mimicry.
So, in a way, that Hawaiian shirt or that jacket with a bit of flair can be a modest protest against the machinery of Western culture or our inner impulse to be less of a person than our worth allows.
So yes, Dress for the joy you want! I promise to politely notice but not make too much of it. After all, I’m from the Midwest, where a dazzling flannel can be seen as reckless. We only dress in bright colors if we’re trying to shoot a deer.
Be well, Feral Souls.
This was really good- one of the best written pieces yet!
Nice job!