Pixel Dance

I am enjoying the kickoff of college football this week. In the fall, you will find my husband and I curled up in collegiate colors, skipping from channel to channel like a rock skipping across a cool mountain lake. I am a Wyoming alum, and brown and gold are my colors. I even planted Brown-Eyed Susans in the yard — grown from seed — because they remind me of home, of our Cowboy pride. So when I discovered the roots of Wyoming colors last week, I was pleasantly surprised.

While checking out the schedule on the official Wyoming Athletic site, I stumbled across this little tidbit: “The story behind the colors of the University of Wyoming dates back to 1895. In the Spring of that year, the first ever UW Alumni Banquet was held. Decorations for the banquet included Brown-Eyed Susans, a flower native of Southeastern Wyoming. The Alumni were so impressed with the colors (brown and yellow) and the beauty of the flowers that they decided to select these colors as the official school colors at UW.”

I love this story. I love that 113 years ago, a few people at a banquet were inspired by the flowers on their table. And their off-the-cuff discussion of serendipity causes me to wear the colors of that flower every fall, when the flowers are abundantly in bloom, by the way. I love that a moment of quiet notice of something beautiful can change hundreds of years for thousands of people. Now, I’m sure you might say that someone had to pick some color, and it’s true. But how many school colors were selected over a flower at a banquet? I imagine many were selected via strategy meetings, with polls, focus groups, long discussions and color vetting. I have to say I’m proud to be from such a place — where a moment of inspiration over dinner, a simple appreciation for beauty, is all that’s needed.

This story has one more turn. I mentioned I have Brown-eyes Susans in my yard. I have them in a horseshoe-shaped bed in my xeric garden, and they have taken over, filling every empty seat in the bed. In fact, it almost looks like a stadium full of Cowboy fans. To me, that’s double serendipity.

I hope you have some good stories of moments of inspiration that have stuck. Please post them. I would love to appreciate them with you.