Orange: A Myriad of Choices

It’s week nineteen of our fifty week challenge, and the prompt was orange. Anything about the color orange, related to it, or words that include orange. My dad turned eighty-nine recently and his favorite candy is orange slices. Ya’ know those chewy, sugar covered, jellied orange pieces. The first thing I thought about when I read the prompt were those orange slices, so I let that idea run through my head. My dad is also famous for bad jokes and puns, so I included puns and jokes about the color orange. I had fun including the word orange in different languages AND other foods that are the color orange. This true mash up was a lot of fun and includes a lot of orange.

It can be tough when you are asked to be creative on demand. There is pressure and expectations and sometimes the ideas just aren’t there. Being creative does not mean you have to be perfect. Perfection is the nemesis of creativity. If we feel the pressure to have to be perfect we can find ourselves stalled because there is no way anything any of us produces is ever perfect.

I will admit that I struggle with being part of this group sometimes. A great deal of the participants are professional graphic designers and their lettering is always astonishing. If I felt that I had to compete with their work every week I would have quit a long time ago. My work is different, never perfect and very extemporaneous. If I lamented about every stroke being judged in regards to it’s adherence to the rules I would have a nervous breakdown. In my own mind I had to let my perfectionism go a long time ago. Instead I let my wild ideas about candied orange slices and bad puns take hold.

There are a myriad of choices we make each day. The best ones I make are the ones that truly let me be myself without worrying what anyone else will think. On certain days it is easier to be myself than on other days, sort of like being a bad pun and hoping the audience finds it humorous. In that myriad of choices you will face this week let your best choice allow your true self to shine through. When in doubt, go find some Reese’s Cups or Cheetos to eat and like your fingers while you decide.