Is it wrong to have so much love for one color? Looking down from the glare of my TV the other night, I noticed I have a lot of purple in my life: my favorite hoodie, my nails, my statement ring, my iPhone case, my water bottle, my blanket. I like to say purple's my favorite color because it combines the tranquility of blue with the passion of red--a pretty accurate description of my temperament, if I do say so myself 
Purple is the color of royalty according to human color psychology. It became associated with royalty and nobility from Greco-Roman times, when Tyrian Purple was only affordable to the elites. The color is even said to have been a favorite of Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra. It's also said that a purple room can boost a child's imagination or an artist's creativity.
I must be onto something with my purple love, as Pantone selected the color Blue Iris (PANTONE 18-3943) as the 2008 Color of the Year, saying:"Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement."There's even a purple language, so to speak. There's more than a few phrases out there incorporating the color in terms both positive and negative. A "purple cow," for instance, is something remarkable, eye-catching, or unusual. "Purple prose," which describes exaggerated or highly imaginative writing, tends to be used negatively. "Purple speech" is profane language, and "purple haze" describes a drug-induced state of confusion or euphoria--a strain of potent marijuana and a type of LSD are the usual culprits.
Believe it or not, there's a word for fear of the color: porphyrophobia. Yet, nothing in the modern English language rhymes with purple (or orange for that matter). Unique!
If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember my Chakra Khan post. There, I mentioned how the color purple correlates to the Crown chakra at the top of one's head. This chakra is often pictured as a lotus flower (the symbol of which I have tatted on my wrist... #winning), opening to allow spiritual awakening in an individual. The Crown chakra is also considered the well that intuitive knowing is drawn from. In other words, the Crown chakra--and its correlated color, purple--is a tool used to communicate with one's deeper spiritual nature.Purpleness is next to godliness, as they say
Purple also has sexual connotations. I first became aware of this back when Teletubbies was popular. Everyone said the purple one was supposed to be gay because of his coloring, the triangle shape on top of his head (a gay pride symbol), and because he clearly spoke with a male voice but carried a purse.* A little Wiki searching helped me figure out how all that purple = gayness stuff came about:
The purple hand is a Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) symbol that derives from an incident which occurred on Halloween night, 1969, when sixty members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Society for Individual Rights (SIR) staged a protest at the San Francisco Examiner in response to a series of news articles disparaging LGBT people in San Francisco's gay bars and clubs.Wow. How did people instantly learn random facts before the internet again?
Anyhoo, that's the extent of my interesting purple facts, so my ode to the color ends here. Well, after this quick shoutout:
♥ I can't get enough of you, boo! Mama loves you in all your shades and variations ♥
*A little murse (male + purse) action never hurt anyone! I'd totally carry one if I were a dude... or at the very least, some kind of messenger bag. Cue that Beyonce song:
