An awareness just dawned on me.

My brain was doing its usual flow of random morning thoughts today and one of those winding thought track was about those fun little online quizzes. You know, the ones where you provide your answers and your friends and family attempt to guess how well they know you by guessing your answers? 

These quizzes always seem to ask what’s your favorite color?. I definitely have a favorite, and yet there are a few others I like just about as much. Why wouldn’t what’s your least favorite color be a better question? Everyone has a least favorite color, right? 

 My least favorite color immediately jumped to mind, because I look horrid in orange. 

Then I asked myself whether or not I could actually say orange was truly my least favorite color. Is there any instance where I don’t mind orange, any instance where I actually like orange? Ah, there’s the rub.

When it comes to nature, my favorite season is Autumn. Its dusty yellows, deep red-browns, bright and burnt oranges create a kaleidoscope that fills me with contentment. It’s always the oranges that beckon, catch my eye and bring the smallest upward curl to the corner of my lips as if we share a special memory where orange won my heart.

The discovery that orange is both my most loved and least liked color, depending on the circumstances turned my morning thought-hike down a more introspective path.

In a world that conditions us to see things in terms of black and white, right and wrong, compliant or rebellious, fair and unfair, conservative and liberal, evil and righteous, is it possible there’s really more of a balance after all?

How much of my life — of all our lives — comes down to more nuanced aspects of love and hate? How often do we pick sides when the field is big enough for all to play? 

Heavy questions for such a light topic: what’s your favorite color?

I think I’ll break out my biggest box of crayons, focus on what I like about each one, create random combinations, and see where something new and beautiful gets crated from embracing the differences. How about you?