True Colors

There was a ballplayer named Manny Ramirez a few years ago. So colorful, flamboyant, and talented was he that Red Sox fans coined the expression "Manny being Manny" to explain his peccadilloes, which included flunking a drug screening because his specimen contained the female fertility hormone hCG, disappearing into the leftfield scoreboard at Fenway Park while a game was in progress to answer the call of nature, and - I saw this myself - fielding a ball off the left field wall in Baltimore and then pausing to shake the hand of a fan in the first row before heaving the ball back to the infield. Manny was truly one of a kind, which we can also say about the year 2020, for crying out loud. 

So let us say that this year's choice for the Pantone Color Of The Year is...TWO colors! What a clear case of 2020 being 2020!

Here they are, and you will see them in your home soon, I'm sure. One of the Forty Shades of Gray made the list this year. It's "Ultimate Gray.” described as a "color of stability, strength, and realness (that is) experienced and wise."

Speaking for people my age, I can verify that gray hair denotes experience. Wisdom, well, you decide.

The other color is called “Illuminating,” and is said to be "a hopeful hue. She’s optimistic and radiates positive vibes."

So the wizened old gray is "experienced," while the young vibrant yellow is an illuminating female. Makes sense.

Pantone really puts a lot of importance into this color thing. They say that these are just the colors we need to leave 2020 in the dust behind us and get on with the business of 2021 with a "a futuristic vibe that telegraphs insight, innovation, and intuition."

But wait! There's more! “One color could never encapsulate all we’ve been going through this year” said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, based in Carlstadt , N.J. “These independent colors are rock-solid resilience on one hand and hopefulness in the other. Ultimate Gray and Illuminating send a message of positivity supported by fortitude.”

I happen to like yellow and gray, the both of them. I looked through the listing of all American colleges and universities and beauty schools (as a gray American, I have time), and none that I could find use that color combination. It would be a natural for a t-shirt or even a pair of pants. OR, an attractive mask!

AOC (D, NY)