Friday

Does seeing this color stir up any distant memories for you? Perhaps bring to mind a long gone time and place? A movie title? A chart topper, an outfit, an event?

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Mr. Skiles had many excellent talents far beyond corralling us unruly kids in his fourth grade classroom. If we were fairly well behaved during class, on the playground, and had for the most part turned in our homework assignments, he would reward us on Fridays with a special performance. It was up to us to select one of his two offerings and he would then most enthusiastically oblige. Strangely for nine-year-olds, choosing between these two options was difficult. Using deeply pigmented colored chalks Mr. Skiles would create an expertly articulated rendering of “The Golden Galleon,” a majestic Spanish sailing vessel surrounded by crashing waves. We watched in silence and in awe as the scene took shape before our very eyes, completely filling the classroom chalkboard. Alternatively he would sit at the upright piano over in the corner and movingly, dramatically play the song, “Deep Purple.” We were enraptured by either of these rewards. There was no wrong choice. We were mostly middle-class kids, a few uppers, but we clamored for the Fridays when our fairly good behavior was rewarded with one of these incredible delights.

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And then there were the lilacs growing in Grandma Cary’s yard; the cute lavender mini skirt I wore on a field trip across town to the junior high school we’d soon graduate into.

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And no doubt you already know that the amethyst is birthstone for February. Although reds and pinks dominate for 28 days, this color owns the shortest month. Mentioned in both Exodus and Revelation this stone and it’s royal color are abundant in nature and popular culture and oh so evocative of royalty. And then there’s the fruit of the vine as well. I rest my case on the virtues of the color purple.

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We all have a thread of purple woven in to our life’s tapestry. When you can, pull that thread, take a sentimental journey and see where it may lead you. Happy Friday!