Photo A Day, Day 1: Something Purple

For some people, “something purple” might be a difficult subject to capture easily on film. It’s not a color that everyone has in their wardrobe; it’s not a common color for interior or exterior paint; there isn’t likely to be a car in that particular shade parked nearby. But for anyone with a daughter under the age of, say, 18, purple is common. And for anyone with a daughter under the age of, say, 8, purple is ubiquitous.

I have a 2-1/2 year old daughter, therefore my life is filled with purple. My daughter has purple pajamas, she has purple dresses, the blanket on her bed is purple, she dresses up in a purple tutu, she has a pair of purple sneakers, she has a purple purse, her favorite toys are a purple My Little Pony and a Matchbox Holley Shiftwell (a car from the movie Cars 2 who just happens to be – you guessed it – purple), a full one-third of her hair bow collection is purple. Her favorite snack is even purple grapes! But the one item that pretty much sums up her love of purpleness is her Purple Princess Cup.

Although I chose to feature Princess Rapunzel in this view (she does, after all, wear a purple gown), you can see glimpses of Princess Belle to the right and Princess Jasmine to the left. Also featured are Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Princess Snow White (no, no one ever seems to call her princess, but I don’t know why and it doesn’t seem fair, so I’m granting her the honorary title), and Princess Cinderella. The plethora of princesses certainly makes it special to her, but her true love for this cup is rooted in the fact that it is purple. The background is purple, the cap is purple, this sucker is PURPLE. This is, unquestionably, the Purple Cup.

I know that the color is what makes it special because she does not refer to it as her “princess cup,” but rather as her “purple cup.” That might not seem notable, except for the fact that all the other cups are consistently referred to as the “Minnie Mouse cup,” the “Buzz and Woody cup,” and the “car cup,” never the “red cup,” the “orange cup,” or the “blue cup.” What makes this cup special to her is that it is so very, very purple.

I don’t know why I’m surprised that she’s so attracted to purple. It is the color of royalty, after all, purple.