The OTG Daily #28 Red Doors

This past week the New Yorker published an entire article about the color red, The Eternal Mysteries of Red by Jackson Arn. 

It featured the Vermeer painting The Girl with the Red Hat from the 17th century. I am a sucker for Vermeer so that reeled me in, but I'm also a sucker for red. Who isn't?  It's the first color babies see after black and white and for most of us it holds deep seated memories and emotions. As Arn wrote, "It's often deemed the first color, the strongest color. the color that stands for color itself."  Any discussion of color and I'm there. In some ways it's everything to me. The wavelength, its effect on the eye and brain, how it absorbs light or reflects it. But I'm going off on a tangent.

This little essay is about redness. To some it means authority or danger:

Or authoritarianism:

However we have not one, but four red doors at our home. Two on the house and two on the barn.  Many houses near us do as well and I always wonder about it.

According to Jennifer Kelly Geddes of Realtor.com, red doors hold special significance in American society. First, painting barn and farmhouse doors was cheap because red pigment could be made easily from oxidized iron. They also had further historical significance in that a red door was a symbol to travelers during the Colonial era that they were welcome to stay and rest. This is turn translated to safe havens for enslaved people trying to find their way to freedom in the Underground Railroad. Some churches offered the same sanctuary, like Grace Episcopal in Hastings, NY where we used to attend.  The red door stands as a sign of safety and comfort as well as the sacrifice of blood to protect the church.  I wonder if such symbolism and bravery will be required again soon

In ancient Jewish tradition the red door warded off the evil eye and in Ireland it was a symbol of freedom that your house was your own with no more payments owed to the bank.

https://www.realtor.com/advice/home-improvement/the-strangely-patriotic-history-behind-homes-with-red-front-doors-and-why-you-might-want-this-hue-too/

And in Chinese culture red symbolizes the fire element and represents luck and prosperity.

So many reasons to be grateful for classic colonial red doors. What are you grateful for today? 

https://www.realtor.com/advice/home-improvement/the-strangely-patriotic-history-behind-homes-with-red-front-doors-and-why-you-might-want-this-hue-too/