I’ve written a couple of internal blog posts about the meanings of colors in the inclusive Pride flag for my company’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group. I liked the way this one about the color yellow turned out, so I thought I’d share it here.
It’s Monday and the golden hour sunlight fills my apartment with a stunning yellow light. Only 90 minutes before, my power had been flickering and I was holed up in my hall/closet/office space under a tornado warning. With the storm passed, power restored, and tacos in hand, I’m going about my social life in the online realm. Ocean Vuong is about to read some poetry on a Zoom event and comments, “My favorite aesthetic is queer couples eating snacks.” And I think that’s the cutest thing I’ve heard all day. I think about how the light breaks through the storm. I think, “Yes, some day, I will be part of a queer couple, and we will eat snacks.” Maybe we will send a photo to Ocean. And we’ll take the photo in light just like this light. For now, I have the light. I smile, close my eyes, letting the light fall on my face as Ocean’s words fill my ears.
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I had a dream earlier this week in which the sun did not rise one day, and, I’m not sure how many days it went on like that, in the dream, but it was long enough. Long enough for out-of-work lighting designers and artists to create neon light projections on the sky with positive messages. I don’t remember the exact words of these messages, but, in the dream, whatever they said made dream-me think, “Maybe tomorrow, the sun will rise again.” And dream-me felt sure that it would. When I woke up, the sun was rising, and I was grateful that we live in world where we can still take that fact for granted. And I try not to take it for granted, but, some times, I do.
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There is a steady comfort in the sun. It is there day after day, though the night seems long. It is there, behind the clouds, though it seems the storm may rage on for ages. The promise of its energy is constant – a beam threaded through the center of existence. So, of course, it is central in the flag. Essential for the rainbow. Essential for life. Vital. Its restoration and constancy keep us going, energizing us towards hope in the face of challenge.
Ambs the Bear 