Waxing Poetic

Well, it's finally arrived. My big transition, the great leap, the fall, tipping into the abyss, the milestone, the ceremony, crossing the rubicon: graduation. Three weeks from now, I'll be more than just tyro (novice), I'll be tyro, MD.

In honor of this occasion, I'd like to try and figure out what the color attributed to each degree means. We all have separate colors, see. My hood should be black with 5 inches of forest green velvet trim. Sweet. I'm wearing it to the gym, I don't care if it's typically only worn to commencement or the encaenia (doubly sweet! Who goes to those things?)

forest green: MD. Obviously, this means we're a loving, caring profession that is a welcoming and nurturing as Gaia, the earth goddess. We continue to grow in our knowledge as we seek to propagate the growth of all. Alternatively, one could comment that the medical profession is like a terrifying forest at night full of hungry wolves waiting to stick tubes down your throat or lines in your subclavian vein. Ask me again after internship.

purple: Law. I wasn't surprised to discover that purple comes from the Latin purpura, as in 'manifestation of a terrible systemic disease that will kill you shortly'. If I see purpura on a patient, I should think of overwhelming sepsis or meningitis. I will leave the fair reader to draw their own conclusions about the similarities and differences between lawyers and dread systemic diseases. Alternatively, I may be a tad unfair. It may just be that purple, associated with royalty from antiquity, represents how lawyers are only available to the wealthy. Oh, sorry--I was supposed to be positive with that one. I suppose everyone has their growing edges.

silver: oratory, speech (i.e., politics).I didn't make this up, from the silver article on wikipedia:

Silver is the most popular color for automobiles because police surveys have shown that because silver is a bright color, silver automobiles are involved in crashes less often than cars of any other color.

Now, if that doesn't describe a politician, I don't know what does.

So I guess our colors do help define us. Good thing we wear those hoods.