Blue, she said

It’s probably old hat to most folks now, but yesterday Facebook began to experience a rash, a rush of colors. People typed in “black”, or “beige” or “white” or “flesh” as their status. This created confusion and unease amongst those who hadn’t heard the word.

Mostly men.

“Blue,” Grl said on FaceBook, and I tried to recall what was blue about her. Her eyes, obviously. But some of the other colors floating around FaceBook made this an unlikely answer.

Her mood, to be sure. She swings – in more ways than one – and now and then she has to be hauled out of a blue mood. Not often, our Grl is usually sunny and bright, but now and again there’s a flip side, a down to the up, a blue to the gold.

It turned out to be a viral thing. Women all over the world – and some smart-ass guys – were revealing the color of their underwear to encourage awareness of breast cancer.

I can’t say that I thought of breast cancer. I thought of breasts, and bras, and blue.

I thought, truth must be told, of Grl’s breasts.

And when I finally learnt of the supposed purpose of this exercise, I thought how sad it would be for all the guys of this world if we lost even a few of those delightful breasts to cancer. Or worse, if we lost even a few of the owners of those breasts.

Trouble is, we do. Globally, annually, tragically, half a million people are killed by breast cancer. I can’t find figures for the number of breasts lost to mastectomies – a case of win the war but lose the battle if ever I heard one – but it would be in the bazillions.

I don’t know what was running through Grl’s head when she advised the world that her status was “Blue”. I suspect she was thinking of breasts. I suspect that most people were thinking innocent titillation.

But I’m thinking that this is a classic case of consciousness-raising needing a little uplift to get it back on track.

Here’s Breast Cancer Action. Read and give. ‘Nuff said.

–Guy Sez