It's Red

Sure, I like the color green. Who doesn't?

But I must confess I'm really starting to like red a lot these days.

I liked red when I was a kid.

Red and black.

That's what it's all about when you're a teenage boy. It's all about the red and the black. Hence the special appeal of the Nazi aesthetic to wayward teenagers (see the most recent podcast "Eye Sockets Island of the Imagination" for more hilarious observations on Nazis and teens).

As I entered the 20's, the red began to fade, and it became mostly just about the black. Black and white. That's all I wore in my 20's. Big white shirts and black pants and black shoes. In fact, people would say "Neal Romanek? Isn't he that guy who dresses like a waiter?" True story.

After the nightmare that is the 20's passed, color began to seep back into my world. I stopped my nightly attempts to drown in my own vomit and that really did wonders for my nervous system. Colors began to pop out at me like weasels on meth. And blue became wonderful to me. And I came to very much love the greens. All the various greens. The green is great. "Great Is The Green" (hmm...novel title? or is a stage play? Perhaps about American middle-class malaise?).

But lately, yeah, been thinking about red.

They say that red is often a color of youth. Chinese brides have traditionally worn red. In Asia, so I've heard, white is the color of death. Red is fresh cuts and fresh fruit. Red is fire and brimstone. Red is rage and revolution.

I've been seeing red. I've been seeing red more often. I don't know if red has seen me yet.

I have been photographed wearing the red shoes.

I have photographed my own damn self wearing the red shoes.

I like the red shoes.

Almost never in my life have I been without a pair of the red shoes. When I was a kid it was high tops. Now it's some English-made suedely bootlets with a rough & ready tread on the sole.

When I wear the red shoes, I am reminded that my blood keeps moving, moving, moving, no matter what I say or do.

I'm wearing the red shoes now.

But the laces are black.