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Shifting Gears

Shifting Gears

Tag Archives: pink

Blue and Pink

01 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by judithar321 in environment, friendship, inspiration, pets

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

blue, gardening, pink, spring

iris

Iris

In the interest of good diplomatic relations and international connectivity, I thought I’d take a page from my friend Heather’s blog and do a color-themed post.

The truth is, I’d been meaning to capture all the spring pinks and blues in my yard before they disappear. I almost missed my chance because a heat wave this week has wilted many of them. So I rushed through the yard last evening, clicking away.

Does anyone else remember Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Three Colors” trilogy? It came out in the early 1990’s and at the time, “Bleu” was my favorite. As it turns out, bleu in all its variations is my favorite garden color, but pink is nice too.

false indigo

False indigo

Columbine

Columbine

Sadly, this Little Miss Kim lilac has lost all her color. Before her flowers opened, they were the bright color of Welch’s grape jelly. But what you can’t see here — or smell — unfortunately, is her fragrance which filled the yard yesterday morning after the heat hurried up her blooms.

Miss Kim2

Columbine2

More columbine

These geraniums grow wild in the woods behind my house. They are welcome “volunteers” in my garden. Even when the flowers are gone, I love the shape of their leaves.

wild geraniums

Wild geraniums

Ditto this wild flox.

wild flox

Wild flox

And these pansies ….. I planted them by Boots’s grave last fall and, surprisingly, they came back after the winter’s cold and snow. It feels as if Boots is giving us a little wave. Pats to you, dear Boots.

pansies for Boots

And speaking of beloved pets, and in keeping with today’s theme, isn’t Karina’s polka dot collar just the thing for spring? (Click on the photo for a closer look.)

polka dots

And, of course, like some of the prettiest flowers, she has a very pink tongue.

pink tongue

Confession: I don’t really hate pink.

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by judithar321 in adult children, environment, health, politics

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

breast cancer, corporate branding, pink, Planned Parenthood, Susan G. Komen Foundation

In light of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s recent decision, now reversed,* to stop funding Planned Parenthood’s program providing breast cancer screenings to low income women, this post was going to be about how much I dislike pink —especially the pink ribbons that have come to symbolize breast cancer.

I was going to insert the following quote from Barbara Ehrenreich’s article, “Welcome to Cancer Land,” in which she describes her “induction into breast cancer,” and eloquently documents how the color pink and teddy bears associated with it infantilize women diagnosed with this deadly and dead-serious disease. (And by the way, men get it too.)

For me at least, breast cancer will never be a source of identity or pride. As my dying correspondent Gerri wrote: “IT IS NOT O.K.!” What it is, along with cancer generally or any slow and painful way of dying, is an abomination, and, to the extent that it’s manmade, also a crime. This is the one great truth that I bring out of the breast-cancer experience, which did not, I can now report, make me prettier or stronger, more feminine or spiritual — only more deeply angry. What sustained me through the “treatments” is a purifying rage, a resolve, framed in the sleepless nights of chemotherapy, to see the last polluter, along with, say, the last smug health insurance operative, strangled with the last pink ribbon. Cancer or no cancer, I will not live that long of course. But I know this much right now for sure: I will not go into that last good night with a teddy bear tucked under my arm.

I was going to talk about how the pink ribbons, teddy bears, product placement, and corporate cancer-related branding strategies go hand-in-hand with our inhumane health care system, where the need to throw a bake sale to help pay for an uninsured neighbor’s heart surgery or a child’s leukemia treatments is considered acceptable.

But I’m not going to write about any of that. Why should I let those annoying pink ribbons spoil my appreciation of a perfectly good color? Instead, I’m going to take back the pink by sharing a few of my favorite rosy-hued objects.

First, a painting that hangs on my bedroom wall. It was a birthday gift from my grandfather, Jacob Scheinfein. It was probably my last gift from him as he died shortly before my 11th birthday.

Birthday gift

Then earlier this week my friend, Jane Ward, published a post about birthday cakes that included this memory from me.

My father was born on February 13. Every year on that day, my mother would pull out her heart-shaped cake pans, purchased just for that occasion. Being the 1960s, we opened a box of Duncan Hines cake mix, added an egg and water, poured the batter into the pans, and put them in the oven. The frosting was always pink.

In fact, it has been a week filled with pink. Yesterday, I came home with this bouquet of tulips. What’s not to like?

Bedroom bouquet

And just this morning, I had to make an emergency trip to CVS to pick up this item for my son.

Pepto Bismol pink

He’d eaten something that made him extremely and violently ill. The fact that he is now well enough to sit up, drink some ginger ale, and eat a few crackers makes me appreciate this particular shade of pink most of all.

*This short clip on NPR includes an interview with Dr. Susan Love, a pioneer in breast cancer treatment. Dr. Love emphasizes the importance of funding research into the causes of breast cancer.

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