Ribbon Check: What Color Are You?

I had no idea there were so many ribbons to promote cancer awareness....

From the Choose Hope website:



Ribbon colors and meanings from http://www.choosehope.com/

 So mom could have chosen from lavender, pink, gold, burgundy/ivory, and I'm not sure about her neuroblastoma.  At first I thought grey, but thanks to the exhaustive awareness list on the Personalized Cause website, gold should cover it.   Come to think of it, considering the spread by the end I might as well order up the color wheel. 




From http://www.choosehope.com/ 


Reminds me too of all the colored bracelets we wore in school, stacked up our wrists almost to our elbows.  Madonna: early supporter against Melanoma?

More than raising awareness, these kinds of products let people feel like they're doing something, part of something, that can often feel so helpless.  In the spirit of deliberating over this new information of so many causes, pardon as I share some random musings.

1.  Not a fan of the black.  If I had to pick a cause, I'd want it to be bright and beautiful.  Melanoma = black?  Murder?  How bleak! 

2.  Ditto for grey.  Brain cancer = grey.  Seems like grey matter issue, so makes sense.  Grey can also be for lead poisoning, allergies, or diabetes. 

3.  There is a lot going on for orange.  Putting world hunger and feral cats into the same band category doesn't seem like a good idea.  Is there peer review for these colors? 

4.  Pearl, you are a cheater and are gray (lung cancer).  Same goes for you silver.  Interesting that you can combine them for different meanings, ie pearl next to white for non-smoker lung cancer awareness.

5.  When in doubt, wear red.  Seems to cover the most causes.

6.  I did not realize that Native American Repatriation had an awareness band: turqouis.

7.  Indigo seems to be wide open.  If you have a cause, claim it now!

8.  I didn't think about it before, but are these bands international?  There are many national interests represented for some of the colors.  For example, Save Darfur (green), Ukranian Orange Revolution of 2004, and Canadian Cancer Society is yellow.

9.  Brown, I have some issues.  Anti-tobacco causes seem to go for brown.  I get it, but again, if you're against tobacco something brighter might do.

10.  Whatever I think of the color band/ribbon system, it gets points for being open and inclusive.  I like the move towards combination colors.  How about patterns?  Maybe leopard print!

Me?  I'm a plum. 

What color are you?