Puzzle #5: Colored Emotions

Today is Sunday, December 22 and I'm feeling blue. Or maybe I'm feeling green. Or red. Yellow? I don't know. It's all so confusing.

Have you ever noticed that we often use colors to express how we're feeling? I'm starting to think you need a degree in psychology just to understand the color spectrum!

For example, when I'm feeling embarrassed, I might say something like "Am I red or what?"...but that makes sense, because when I'm embarrassed my face flushes, and it really does take on a reddish hue! (You should see myfather when he gets embarrassed... he doesn't have much hair on his head, so the red just keeps going and going and going...)

Of course, if my dad ever sees that I made a comment like that about him on the internet, it might be hazardous to my health...I would cease to be in the pink.

But what about if I'm feeling envious? We say I'm green with envy! Does that make any sense to you? They say that jealousy is the green-eyed monster, but nothing about me really turns green when I get jealous.

Then when I'm sad, I'm blue...like maybe I was singing the blues or something? Or watching Blue's Clues? Last time I was feeling sad I looked in the mirror, and my face wasn't any more blue than usual...maybe even a little more pale. And if I'd been crying, well then, I'm sure my face would be all splotchy with red, not blue!

You aren't feeling cowardly, are you? Because then they say you're yellow. Crazy. Makes me wonder about bananas. Are they the most timid of foods? They are good for you, you know, with all that Potassium. But I've got to wonder now. If fish is brain food, maybe bananas are chicken food.

(And, on a related subject...why do we use "chicken" and "yellow" interchangeably? We had chickens on the farm when I was growing up, and they didn't seem any more timid, yellow, or chicken than any of the other animals!)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Have you ever been purple with rage? That makes more sense than some of the others, since your face does sometimes take on a reddish-purplish sort of color when you get mad

Blue, green, red, yellow, purple...they're all colors that express emotion. But that begs the real question...

If I'm feeling turquoise today, how am I really feeling?