Pantone is a well known graphic arts company that specializes in all things color. The paint chip at the hardware store that also shows other colors that match? That's the work of companies like Pantone.
Another thing Pantone does is come up with the Color Of The Year. The process of determining what one color represents global influences in fashion, entertainment, socioeconomic conditions, and other factors is a multi-year effort.
This process, and its influences, were brought up in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada". There's a scene where a fashion magazine administrative assistance that's ingorant to that world, Andrea, makes a flippant comment about how a shade of blue is not unique. The magazine chairperson, Miranda Priestly, proceeds to walk her down the path of how color is selected, and the millions of dollars and jobs behind it affect Andrea's meager world. That color, Cerulean Blue, was Pantone's color of the year in 1999.
I've only recently become aware of the process and selection, and have been pleasantly surprised at how accurate some past choices have been. Given all the turbulence in the world, I was very interested in what the selectors would come up with.
For 2024, Pantone selected...Peach Fuzz. Pale, almost transparent, peach fuzz.
WTF.
My hyper-analytic side came running, with shields and swords at the ready. Peach Fuzz! That's not a color! It's...fuzz. Fur. Tiny, almost indiscernible follicles that line the skin of a very yummy fruit. The "color" is what's UNDER the follicles. How ridiculous!
I opened my browser to make sure I wasn't making a mistake about what peach fuzz is. Every link that popped up referred to fine human hairs on skin, and how to banish them from your body, never to return again.
Sounds like the ultraconservatism rampant in my world.
I searched again, this time specifically for peach fuzz on peaches. This connected with and validated my knowledge, that peach "fuzz" is a protective layer that helps the fruit ripen optimally. This rekindled those warm memories from my childhood, when I picked peaches from abundant trees and ate the fruit that seemed meant for perfect refreshment on a sunny summer's day. How the texture on my lips and tongue was disturbing, yet tolerable, for the succulent beauty that lay underneath. The looking past what we initially see and feel can lead to wondrous discovery and connection.
And THAT was my aha! moment.
We are living in a highly judgmental world. One that seems to lack empathy in favor of hatespeak. Favors violence and banishment over coexistence. Political, religious and capitalistic influencers steer us into this mindset in order to corral lemmings into armies of revenue and manifest destiny, all under the guise of "doing the right thing for mankind".
My thoughts connected to the texture of peach skin, and its furry surface. If I'd judged it, and thus banished it as an abomination, then I may have never discovered my joyous connection to what was inside, and how I was quite happy to tolerate the almost insignificant discomfort it presented.
The right thing, what I feel this wacky world of ours needs most, is the gentle, caring, nurturing, nonthreatening presence of peach fuzz. It needs a healthy medicinal spoonful of connection and tolerance. Not in ways that make us vulnerable, but in ways that connect the vast similarities in what most people want. A safe place to live. Food and clothing. A feeling that we can be ourselves, not at the expense of others, but in coexistence with others. And that our idiosyncrasies are what make us all so wonderful, and powerful, and...human.