Go Blue for Diabetes

Just last night I was hanging out with a good friend of mine who had dressed up as a Smurf for Halloween. More specifically, she had gone as part of a group of Smurfs — modern-day Smurfs — and was explaining to me the ups and downs that come with that particular costume. (The highlight: when a group of people dressed as a roaming Studio 54, complete with red rope and portable boombox, yelled out “SMURFS!!” and invited them to dance. Low point: when they went to a poorly attended Halloween party at an expensive apartment where much of the upholstery was white.) It sounded a lot better than my own Halloween — I’d planned to dress up as a Derby girl (stage name: Price Check), but Amazon delivered my skates too late. Plus, the Bay Bridge was closed, so there weren’t really too many people out. I put on a cowboy hat, Peter wore a toddler’s dog outfit, and our main activity was going to see the Michael Jackson movie  — which I’m surprised to say that I highly recommend. Anyway, point being, no Smurfing for me.

I bring this up because I just heard that on November 14th — World Diabetes Day — JDRF has somehow convinced the San Francisco Ferry building to “go blue.” I assumed this meant that they were going to put up a lot of blue lights — you know, sort of like how the Empire State Building gets lit up for different holidays. But upon further research it looks more like the Ferry Building will remain as is, and the people attending will bring the blue. Here are the instructions from the JDRF blog:

• Come with your entire family
• Dress up in blue
• Paint your face blue
• Bring a flashlight and blue cellophane
• Bring blue signs

I’m sorry — but does that not sound like they’re throwing a giant Smurf party?

I’m tempted to go — I’ve never really attended any mass diabetes rally, and the idea of being around so many people with pumps is, I’ll admit, a little exciting. But I also want to know how we got stuck with blue. It’s a nice color, but it doesn’t have too much to do with diabetes. Red would seem to be the obvious choice — was that too predictable? Or did the American Heart Association just beat us to the punch? I guess I should be grateful we didn’t go for pink (breast cancer) or yellow (Lance Armstrong) — but I always wonder who gets first dibs on the colors. Also, what about the diseases that didn’t act quick enough? What are they left with? Puce?

Here’s what I do know: when the American Heart Association gets together to “Go Red,” they turn it into quite a show. I don’t know what JDRF has planned for us, but it had better involve an aerial photograph.

Catherine Price

Catherine Price (www.catherine-price.com) was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism

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Catherine Price

Catherine Price was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism