White Blouses

Mom loves white blouses.  She loves to wear them and she loves to see other people wear them.  I never realized how much Mom really loves white blouses until I was helping her move.  I opened a closet in her guest bathroom and I actually laughed out loud.   The room is pink....very pink.  As much as I love pink, this room is almost overwhelming.  What stared out at me from that closet was a surprise.  I feel like I know my Mom well, but this was so interesting to me.

The closet was filled.....I mean the entire rack......with white blouses.  Not white tee shirts.  Not white jackets or white pants.  It was just white blouses.  They hung there neatly on their hangers.  There were all sorts of styles, but one thing remained true.  They were white.  Not beige, not ecru, not tan, not even ivory.  They were white.  The contrast was blaring from the room with the bold Pepto-Bismol pink wallpaper and maroon colored carpet.

(In spite of the sounds of it, the pink bathroom is really quite lovely.  It has just been the brunt of many jokes throughout the years.)

I have a lot of photos on my refrigerator.  I have always loved to display pictures this way.  I am a nut about taking a lot of photographs and I love to receive photos that other people send me.  The worst part of this is finding a place to display them.  I have found that the refrigerator is a great receptacle for this.  You can fit a lot of pictures on a refrigerator.  I noticed that I have several pictures of Mom on my refrigerator....all taken at different times and for different occasions.  In all but one of the photos, Mom is wearing white.

When we were packing up for the move, I kept telling Mom she had to pare down some of her stuff.  Namely, her clothes.  I knew closet space was limited at Stratford Court.  Mom had a hard time deciding on which clothes to take....the white blouses were no exception.  We took a lot of clothes to Goodwill, so I'm sure there are many people out there wearing some of Mom's white blouses.  I'm glad we were able to put them to good use.  

Still, it was a difficult decision deciding which white blouses to pack for the move and which white blouses to give away and/or leave behind.  This was just one of many decisions  that had to be made.

Mom really looks good in white.  She often has a sweater or jacket on top of her white blouse, but the white obviously shows.    I have always thought she seemed to be extremely well-dressed.  Maybe I never realized that it could be because of those crisp white blouses!

One of the first things I think about when I think about wearing white all the time is Diane Keaton.  I cannot remember seeing a picture of her or seeing her in a film when she doesn't have on white.  It's funny how this was so very noticeable even more than I noticed it on my own Mom!  I love Diane Keaton and I think she's a classy woman....just like Mom.  She has a sort of ease and a comfortable way about her.

I was thinking about the color white and all the things associated with the color.  I decided to look on Wikipedia, which is the easiest 'go to' place for information about anything at any time.  According to Wikipedia:  "Since white is the extreme end of the visual spectrum (in terms of both hue and shade), and since white objects--such as clouds, snow and flower--appear often in nature, it has frequent symbolism.  Human culture has many references to white, often related to purity and cleanness, whilst the high contrast between white and black is often used to represent opposite extremes."

I think most of us think of purity, cleanliness and brightness when we think of the color white.

I am probably just in the 'wedding mode' since my daughter's recent engagement.  We love to talk about all things wedding related.  Of course, central to this discussion is the wedding dress.  No one can deny that a beautiful bride walking down the aisle in her dress of white is truly a vision to behold.   It can definitely bring a tear to one's eye.

Just recently, Madeline, Mom and I were talking about those tears that can come at moments such as these. We decided that we have a lot of 'saps' in our family and that there will surely be tears when Madeline and Eric get married.  But as Mom said, "they will be happy tears." 

We have all shed a lot of tears this year.  It will be a nice change for the tears we shed to be happy ones.

Angels also come to mind when thinking about the color white.  They are usually depicted in white gowns with white feathery wings.  This, too, is a sight to bring a tear to one's eye.  I know in my life I have many angels looking over me.....some from above and some right here on earth.  

One of my earthly angels just happens to have a closet full of white blouses.

I think that the color white is associated with goodness and pleasantries from a very early age.  Remember in grammar school drawing an obligatory picture of a house with green grass and a blue sky?  I know I always drew fluffy white clouds in my blue sky.

I remember as a child laying in the newly mown grass on a warm summer's day looking up at those fluffy white clouds in the sky.  It was fun to tell all the things that you saw in those beautiful white clouds.  It's amazing how a cloud can look like a furry kitten, a castle, or even a tree.  Cloud formations can be an infinite source of entertainment and inspiration.

In old Westerns, the good guys wore white hats....the bad guys wore black hats.  Simple as that.  The contrast between white and black being synonymous with the contrast of good and evil has been around for quite some time.  Just look at the yin/yang symbol.  The black/white thing is very evident there and has been familiarized as opposites or good versus evil.  I think in reality, the Chinese created this symbol to show how opposites are interconnected and ebb and flow with each other.  It is a symbol of balance.  Our Western culture has simply taken on the simplistic idea of the Yin and Yang, meaning black/white opposites.  The liturgical robes of priests are certainly considered good, as opposed to the black dress of a witch.  However, Glenda, the GOOD witch in The Wizard of Oz, wore white.  Black cats and black magic are associated with evil....well, at least superstitions and bad luck....not goodness.  The comparisons and lists go on and on, but given a simplistic questionnaire about the colors of black and white, the majority of people would associate the white as being good, pleasant, clean and pure.

I think having a mom who is obsessed with wearing white isn't really a bad thing at all.  No, I'd say it's a very good thing, symbolically speaking.

Recently Jim and I went over to visit Mom.  She told me I looked good in white.  I basically had on black slacks and a solid white vee neck tee shirt. It certainly wasn't anything special, but the white shirt definitely must have jumped out at Mom in order to prompt her to say such a thing to me.  I guess I will emulate my mother and start wearing more white shirts!

Mom sometimes complains about gaining weight.  I guess maybe she's truthful about this, but my eyes certainly don't see it.  I do know she enjoys food and eating. Who wants to give up something as pleasurable as an occasional Butterfinger bar or an ice cream cone from Sungroves?   Mom says she needs some new blouses since her old ones don't button!  I think she's totally exaggerating, but I know that if she feels that her weight gain isn't a good thing, she needs to be convinced otherwise.

Or better yet......just buy new blouses, I told her!

When we were talking about wearing white and my white tee shirt that I was wearing that day, Mom told me that if she had to give up every color in her wardrobe except one, the one color she'd have to keep would be white!

There.  That seals the deal.

I guess we all have our little idiosyncrasies and rather strong feelings about something that no one else would "get."  I also suppose we all have a closet somewhere in our house full of something that might make someone else laugh or shy away.  It is usually something that  says a lot about us and who we are.  I know I have a closet so full of this organized chaos I call my craft supplies.  I think it can be overwhelming to others when they see it (sometimes it is overwhelming to me!).  Nonetheless, it is a closet full of something that is so much "me."  It overwhelms my daughter and makes my mom say it gives her a headache to look at it!  Mom has white blouses, I have craft supplies.  My husband actually has old golf clubs and an old bowling ball that he'll never use again in his closet amongst his clothes.  Giving up trusty, old sporting equipment is not easy for him.  Madeline has a literal menagerie of stuffed animals on the top shelf of her closet.  It can make most anyone chuckle, or at least smile, when they see it.  I really remember buying all those beanie babies....but that is another story.

So whether you are clinging onto old sports equipment, too many shoes or clothes, a stuffed animal collection that you have clearly outgrown or more craft supplies than you'll ever be able to use in your lifetime, your closeted treasures can say a lot about the person you are.

And I know that memories are made of this.

Yes, it's pink!

An angel wears white