12 March 2010

My Many Colored Days

{My Many Colored Days bracelet
Jangles ceramic beads, colored magnesite, resin and spacers from Rings & Things}

Some days are yellow.
Some are blue.
On different days I'm different too.
You'd be surprised how many ways
I change on Different Colored Days.


On Bright Red Days how good it feels
to be a horse and kick my heels!

On other days I'm other things.
On Bright Blue Days I flap my wings.


Some days, of course, feel sort of Brown.
Then I feel slow and low, low down.


Then comes a Yellow Day and Wheeee!
I am a busy, buzzy bee.


Gray Day....Everything is gray.
I watch. But nothing moves today.

Then all of a sudden I'm a circus seal!
On my Orange Days that's how I feel.

Green Days. Deep deep in the sea.
Cool and quiet fish. That's me.

On Purple Days I'm sad. I groan.
I drag my tail. I walk alone.

But when my days are Happy Pink
it's great to jump and just not think.


Then come my Black Days. MAD. And loud.

I howl. I growl at every cloud.

Then comes a Mixed-Up Day. And WHAM!
I don't know who or what I am!

But it all turns out all right, you see.
And I go back to being...me.


Wisdom from the Doctor...Seuss that is!

I love One Fish, Two Fish and those wacky Things in The Cat in the Hat. Fox in Socks was a tremendously fun read-aloud {especially that beetle battle}. And the Grinch is probably my favorite character. But My Many Colored Days is by far my favorite Seuss.

There is something so soothing about these words. I am not even bothered that the pictures are not Seussified at all {this was written before he died, but never finished until later.}I remember reciting this in the car to fussy kids. I recall learning it by heart and tucking my wee ones into bed with this rhyme running through their heads. I can still do all the inflection with this to make the words sing.

I saw a post that someone did about this book who felt that this was a slam against people of color. That referencing brown as a slow color and black as an angry hue and yellow as inherently more busy than the others was a slam against people of different races. Maybe I am naive in my thinking, but I really don't think that Dr. Seuss would have meant anything derogatory. Frankly, that floored me {and my apparently pollyanna world view}.

It is the message behind this book that gets me everytime. It is not about rainbows and horses and seals. It is not some crazy racist agenda. It is about feelings. It is about making feelings accessible and real to kids, and helping them to articulate it. It is about how color values influence and affect our moods, which is important to note for budding artists who would be reading, or having this read to them. How clever to associate colors with feelings for kids to better comprehend. I know it made discussions so much easier when my kids could say that they were having a brown sort of day or a yellow one. We don't talk that way that much anymore, but it certainly made for easier understanding in a highly visual way.

Dr. Seuss is a treasure. The words, the meanings, the colors, the playfulness... these are all things that I think we need a bit more of in our world. I, for one, am very happy that my days are Many Colored. It makes me look forward to the next color in the palette each day.

Today is a bit of a gray day outside...but inside I am longing to be blue and flap my wings.

What color are you today?

Just a reminder that the Inspired by...Dr Seuss challenge is still open. At stake is a charming little handmade book from Esther in France. One lucky random person will be the winner on April 1st (no fooling!). You have until 11:59 pm CST on March 31st to enter. Check out the information on this post for how to's. I am really looking forward to seeing how creative you can be!

Enjoy the day!

14 comments:

SummersStudio said...

I think I may be having a mixed up colour day and am hoping to settle into a red day and kick up my heels. Erin, I love this Dr Seus piece as well and I think like you that all it says is that people have lots of different emotions and that they are all OK. I think that's an important message for children to learn. We are not all sunshine and roses every day and those blue, brown, black, whatever days are just fine. They are just part of being human.

Mellisa said...

How can you not love Seuss? "Oh the Places You'll Go" is another of my favorites when a change of attitude is required! Apparently I live in your Pollyanna world as well, I think of Seuss as nothing but positive :)

Gaea said...

That is one of our favorites! When something happens that is sad I always tell the kids... "Some days are blue." or if it's an exciting day "today is a YELLOW day!" Love it! And your bracelet!

Diana said...

How true that with each color comes a specific feeling. Today so far I am having a Brown day,however, most of my days are Yellow...busy as a bee. Thank you for sharing.
Ta Ta
Diana

Christine said...

Erin, I adore that bracelet! I just changed my blog header to a photo of a bracelet of mine that is many-colored, too!

I think today, I am struggling to be pink in very grey surroundings.

And I love Dr. Seuss. Thanks for this poem today. :)

Unknown said...

Who Doesn't Love Suess?...Love your Many Colors bracelet! I love whimsical and colorful things...however, I rarely make bold colored jewelry. But...I have created a bracelet for this months challenge. I'll post it when I can get a good shot of it...we are having a gray day too, not a good photo day.

Have a great weekend!

Patty said...

Unfortunately I'm having a gray day. It's cold, rainy, and I feel like maybe I want to go back to bed, but I've got too much to do. But tomorrow I'm hoping for a brighter one.

Silver Parrot said...

Lovin' that bracelet and your post was great, too! I'll join you in your little Pollyanna world any time!

KJ - thinkin' she needs to get her bright beads out again and play with them this weekend!

Aidan Donnelley Rowley @ Ivy League Insecurities said...

Love Dr. Seuss. Love this post. I believe that days have colors too. And I too appreciate the contrast, the juxtaposition of rainbows and grays.

(Adding you to my blogroll now!)

Regina said...

Beautiful! Some people see racial overtones in pretty much everything, thankfully they are few in number. Love the poem and your interpretation of it...

Lance said...

Erin,
I love the Dr. Seuss you shared. I've been thinking about him today! And then...I read this!!

And today...I am yellow! I'm feeling filled with happiness today. I look outside, and it's chilly and rainy. But that, today, hasn't stopped me from being filled with sunshine! Not every day is like this, of course. These are good days, though, and I'll take them gladly!

lisa oram said...

Love this post. We have that book and I never really liked it. Now I will look at it differently.

Jenners said...

I love that bracelet! So happy looking!

And I had never heard of this poem by Dr. Seuss. And Fox in Socks is quite the challenge, isn't it?

Heather said...

I am really sad that I missed seeing this post in your blog. I love Dr. Seuss and just finished a year long art quilt titled "McElligut's Pool" as a tribute to him. I can not put pictures on the web yet because it is going to the Houston Quilt Festival hopefully. It took a first place ribbon in the local Quilt show. I am looking forward to following your blog- glad I found you.

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