Making a better world means to avoid the 'one-eyed, one horned, flying purple people eaters'

Shades of purple

Carol Forsloff---Never mind those "One-eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eaters," be purple in your politics and social manners too.  That's red and blue blended together in the United States, the primary colors representing its political divisions.  But across the world the color purple can be central to change and being in charge, so that like the crayons in a box of many colors we can be fused into something beautiful when we work together peacefully.

Sometimes purple needs some white thrown in for tone. Or brown. That means purple can be dark or light and come in various tones.  Working together and combining our talents and skills, as well as our dreams, may mean those variations. Purple is the color of royalty and being in charge.  In other words, it puts all of us around the world in charge of ourselves and each other, especially in a world where problems are great.

When we were all little, we enjoyed our crayons and paper that we used for our drawings. We also had watercolors of different hues that we could swirl around on a piece of paper and make pictures. Most of us say we enjoy seeing a rainbow in the sky and myriad flowers in gardens around our home or in our towns. In many towns across the world,, our gardens and our homes are as diverse as we are. So we're as special as is the whole world. We come in all shades. Sometimes, however, just like the whole world, diversity of color isn't appreciated, and it should be, because that is what nature is all about. That is what we love when we played with those colors as children and when we look at a rainbow or stop and smell those roses. As children we knew all of the colors made pictures that were far better than the ones we drew with our pencils. But diversity is different than divisions, for as painters know colors become more beautiful when they are fused with shades of others.  Separate colors, or primary ones, are like those one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eaters that don't allow compromise and unity, the kind of unity that can help people work together.  It is essential for progress.  But purple should be paramount in our thoughts, as representing that fusion of colors that makes for a beautiful whole.

In the world of today we live on the edge of climate disasters, disease outbreaks, and political upheavals.  In the United States, at the time of the first election of Barack Obama as the United States' first black President, polls found that 30% of the people would not vote for a black man.  That 30% was vocal both before and after the election, with the result that racial harmony today is undermined by the consistent racial difficulties brought about by attitudes that are like single colors.  Attitudes are those crayons in a box that create landscapes of tones of just the primary colors in ways that are sharp, resulting in a painting that appears crude as a result.

 There are people who tell us that 30% was not a big enough difference in attitude.  But the actual percentage can be very influential in changing a country's direction. Across the world, it can also make a big difference in whether people are able to work together, as it is often the negatives in our miidst, those who are the most shrill, who loudly proclaim their rights that override those of others.  They drown out those purple people who often work so hard to modify and ameliorate difficulties, yet are not as wantonly aggressive in their tactics.  30% of the people who isolate race or any divisive factor can make a big difference in what happens to the rest of us going forward.

We are many in this count of purple people who dream in color, just as we did when we were kids and hope that those of you who read this will do so as well. We can defeat those "One-Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eaters" from that old song of the early 1950's. We dream about people of many colors doing whatever they want to do from teaching in schools, to serving as ministers, to running corporations and to leading the United States as well as other countries who seek, or have achieved, the interest to move forward. We don't want artificial barriers to prevent folks from reaching their goals and finding their dreams. Those were the dreams of Martin Luther King in America and Gandhi in India.

We dream in color. It wasn't always possible to dream that way in reality, and it's still a struggle, even in the developed nations who pride themselves on the freedom to select their own governments and their own directions.

How can we facilitate the purple as the color of choice in a box of separate colors called our world?
All of us can start by extending our hearts and hands to people of different races than ourselves. We can paint our lives in color. Dreaming in color allows us to realize the notion that we are all connected.  Perhaps the greatest wish of the holiday season, or every season where hope and love are the centerpiece--which means daily--is for everyone to dream in colors, setting the color purple as the right choice of blending and beautifying our world, representing the royalty in all of us.