Sorry, I'm all awarenessed out.

[gurdymonkey]

I am not a cool kid. I don't have a cell phone that does anything but be a phone. I don't Twitter. I only get on Facebook at night, usually wondering what the hell I'm doing on Facebook.I don't need or want or care to be plugged into the zeitgeist 24/7 'cause I might miss  something.

I get dressed at about 6:05 AM Pacific Daylight Time. I usually have time before work to check email and messages, watch the morning news and then I go to work.

So it's not until the day is mostly over that I start noticing some pretty damn obscure references to wearing purple, many coming across (intentionally or not) in what reads as a cooler than thou, "I'm wearing purple today, why aren't you?" kind of note. Oh, God, now what? Did I miss mention on the news that it was National Appreciate Your Eggplant Brethren Day when I was flossing? Did Barney die? What is Wrong On The Internet NOW?

There hadn''t been a peep on the calmly read news snippets that punctuate the classical station I play softly at my desk. My co-workers are not wearing purple. It doesn't hit the local newspaper I read online, in fact, until 11:19 AM (you know, a time of day that people who don't work from home or pull the swing shift have already gotten dressed) in a blog posting to a column titled "The Mommy Files," which I don't read as I am not anyone's Mommy.  I had Google "wearing purple."

Is it OK that I marched with my parents for civil rights because I was old enough to walk however far it was on a cold day in Minneapolis in 1966? Do I get any points for that? Of course, my father, a German Jew whose parents had the good sense to emigrate from Frankfurt in 1936, married my mother, an Irish-American Catholic in 1957 against the objections of his entire family except his mother. (Mom's family liked him just fine, thank you.)

I was a Supreme in Cindy Sykes' back yard in 1968, lip synching to Motown 45s with friends. They didn't care that I was white, I didn't care that they were brown, we were too busy working on our choreography. Teaneck was progressive then.

I spent pretty much all my spare time and cash from the age of twelve right up to about 1995 under the tutelage of a horse trainer who never married but had several male "roommates" in the time I knew him. (Yes, my parents knew - and approved. I was occupied, learning responsibility and making some pocket money mucking stalls and teaching lessons.)  By the time I moved into Demarest Hall at Rutgers my senior year I didn't think much one way or the other about the fact that Rob and Fran were boyfriend and boyfriend.

Try working for a health insurance company in the mid 1980s and trying to figure out what is going on with this sudden influx of claims for a disease that doesn't even have a name yet, and then finding out with the rest of the world. And wondering if any of your old dorm mates who you never quite managed to keep up with are dying.

Anybody remember POW/MIA bracelets? 
What color ribbons were we all looping around things in 1979 and why?

So please forgive me if I was so uncool and insensitive as to have put on a blazingly fuschia pullover this morning. I'm doing the best I can, OK?

Comments

[moonflake1978.livejournal.com]

The hubby couldn't wear purple today. Personally, I don't look at it as a way to look down at anyone not wearing purple and I hope nobody made you feel that it was. I posted about it on here and facebook for the people who weren't aware of the significance of it. An attempt to spread the word, not condescend. Hell, most younger kids think they have it rough with their Cell phones, and Ipods, and facebook. No standing outside in below freezing temperatures hauling firewood. No having 3 channels of fuzz and maybe if you were lucky able to make out figures. and Saturday morning cartoons!! Seriously, even when cable tv WAS around there was no Cartoon network, or multiple channels of just cartoons!. (Sorry, soap box)

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

No, I just think the so-called awareness raising failed big time if people didn't find out about it until the day was mostly over - and a lot more people than me didn't.

[moonflake1978.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree, I found it on facebook and another website but I didn't get invites.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Did I miss mention on the news that it was National Appreciate Your Eggplant Brethren Day when I was flossing? Did Barney die? What is Wrong On The Internet NOW?


This made me giggle.

I knew about today, but was a) not that impressed with the idea and b) not planning to leave the house and c) I own nothing purple. I don't like purple. I was going to wear my Pride beads if I did go out, and that was gonna have to do.

There is an article on abcnews7 local about the purple, though. But one of the reasons I didn't much like the idea is that wearing a color is not enough to raise awareness - you got to tell people why and so on.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

It is really sad of me that my first thought on seeing your subject header was that you had somehow grown tired of mono no aware? How would you be able to compose poetry??

Shows where my brain is at. @_@

I did know about the purple thing, but real action is needed, not just a bunch of people wearing some color or another.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I found one purple item of clothing that isn't a tie or a costume. But if I hadn't, I wouldn't have worried. We all make our own contributions.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

I long ago gave up on the "Wear X To Support Y!" thing, I think it was around junior high. All of that stuff and nonsense about "you didn't wear green so you get a pinch! got a few people socked, and suddenly folks didn't bother with it any more.

It's nice that there is a desire to raise awareness of an issue, but, as you say, my wearing of socks or painting my fingernails a particular color will have no impact and no effect on anyone except me.

[cayswann.livejournal.com]

While I *am* multi-platform participatory (facebook, livejournal, twitter, etc), I've never been part of the "Change your avatar to support X! Wear this color to support Y!" crowd. My clothing colors will NEVER make a change in society. I even own purple (and I think I look okay in it), but my color choices do not change ANYTHING. ANYTHING!

What *does* matter is that I speak out regularly about anything I care about. I *DID* have one conversation on Twitter that happened to coincide with yesterday's "spirit day / purple" thing. But the conversation includes my regular thoughts: Bullying is always wrong. I support Free Speech and Free Thought. I will never want to punish someone for their Thoughts. But I also believe that some people's exercise of Free Speech does constitute a dangerously close level of bullying when it comes to teens and adults struggling with unacceptance of LGBT equality. I will always support someone's right to free speech, and MY right to disagree with them and use my free speech to express my disagreement. And this includes speaking out when someone asserts that LGBT folks are inherently evil, wrong, or worthless --> I will EMPHATICALLY disagree, in public, and across all areas of my life.

I strongly embrace equality in a zillion forms, and that includes losing friendships/acquaintances with people who decide they cannot be my friend because I support LGBT values. (Really. I've lost friends over speaking out on Facebook. Clearly, they didn't value the friendship we had between us.)

[theiadora.livejournal.com]

If someone bullied you because you weren't wearing purple. They missed the point of the reasons behind the reasons to wear purple yesterday.

I saw it in time to wear purple. But while I'm against bullying, and support same sex relationships, I didn't wear purple yesterday. In Reality, it's not about the color of anyone's clothing, its about the actions the individual takes.

And like reyardine says "real action is needed, not just a bunch of people wearing some color or another." And I'm sorry that the people giving obscure references missed the message.