It is a lovely color. It represents the sky and the sea, peacocks, cornflowers, turquoise, sapphire and lapis. Not to mention glaciers, Kentucky grass, robin’s eggs, blueberries, bluebells and blue jays. So how does such a beautiful color get such a bad rap?
Think about it.
When we’re sad, we’ve got the blues. We can be in a blue funk, a blue mood, full of blue notes, and this might even occur on a Blue Monday. In which case we might find ourselves listening to – The Blues — an musical institution fueled by hard luck, rough times and downtrodden guitar players.
Not feeling well? You might be blue around the gills. A hangover is called the blue flu. In fact, drink enough alcohol and you might get the blue devils (delirium tremens). Even your malfunctioning computer faces the blue screen of death.
One might impulsively do things out of the blue. A non-stop chatterbox will talk a blue streak. An angry person will curse a blue streak or even scream blue murder. Stubborn people might do something repeatedly, until they are blue in the face.
Afterward they may wonder what in the blue blazes prompted them? On the other hand, their behavior may only occur once in a blue moon.
Get in a fight and you’ll end up black and blue. Worse yet, the blues and twos (ambulances) might take you to the hospital. And if things get really violent. someone may have to call the Boys in Blue.
Just hope you don’t end up in the notorious blue room made famous by the French madman Blue Beard, who murdered several of his wives, left them to rot there and forbade anyone to enter.
When facing a choice of two evils, you are between the devil and the deep blue sea. If you continue to look at the matter through blue glasses (as opposed to “rose colored glasses”) you will have a distorted and gloomy view of things.
By remaining ignorant and closed to new ideas, you take the blue pill. (Although Neo in the Matrix chose red.)
Then there is blue and sex.
An unsatisfied man gets blue balls. Prostitutes were once referred to as blue gowns because of the garments they wore in jail. A bawdy person might tell a blue joke or enjoy a blue movie (pornographic). When we dip into the blue we say something obscene. And of course, novices should always be careful, lest they end up screwed, blued and tattooed.
But it is not all bad. There are plenty of positive blue references too!
Elvis Presley had a Blue Christmas and a bad case of the GI Blues, but he also ended up in Blue Hawaii!
She wore blue velvet. (At least in David Lynch’s dreams.) Picasso, Van Gogh and other artists went through very creative painting stints known as blue periods, producing some of their best work.
The very rich are called blue blooded, the best prize of all is the blue ribbon, and the only kind of friend worth having is a true blue one.
Your blue sky thinking just may result in a flash of genius, a new invention or an out of the box solution. Similarly, you may be inspired by a bolt from the blue, and if you are lucky, you may even travel into the wild blue yonder! Blue can be a great source of happiness and inspiration.
Different colors affect people in different ways. What do you think of blue?
And finally, no study of blue would be complete without this song.
Baby Blue was first recorded by Badfinger in 1972. Sadly, two of the band members, Peter Ham and Tom Evans, had SERIOUS cases of the blues. Suffering depression, they would both meet their deaths by suicide in the years to come. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful song. Hope you like it!
Histories and Mysteries 