A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to catch sight of the Northern Lights here in Northern Illinois. It had been a goal of mine since I was a child – there’s something about a rainbow of colors against the night sky that just captures my imagination.
As a child, I also loved creating art – construction paper, scissors, and glue; jars of paint at the easel; or my favorite, crayons and paper. I was enamored by the variety of colors in my Crayola 64-pack -- from periwinkle to bittersweet and lemon yellow to brick red and every color in between. I also loved that there was a “Red Orange” and an “Orange Red” and they were totally different shades.
In fact, I loved colors so much, that I would answer the standard question about what I wanted to be when I grew up with a passionate response: “I want to be the person who names colors of crayons at the factory.”
Though my career ambitious shifted, I haven’t lost my appreciation for the variety of colors that show up in our world – whether it’s a pop of red with a neutral outfit or a vibrant throw pillow on a neutral couch.
And just this morning, as I drove into work, I was so struck by the vivid colors of the sunrise that I stopped to take a photo before I went inside. Few things in life are ever simply “black and white,” there are shades of gray and an infinite number of other hues that give the world and its inhabitants depth, dimension, meaning, and beauty. We must embrace the diversity around us – it’s how we bring the full picture together.
I’m Suzanne Degges-White and that’s my perspective.
