The Power of Pink

I was honoured to be the guest speaker at the Jamaica Cancer Society luncheon in Kingston, Jamaica today. Following is my address:

Some years ago, I was preparing for a photo shoot for the annual report for Red Stripe. As I threw open my closet doors to decide what to wear, I pondered a bit on what I wanted to portray as the only woman on the board. Now, the typical colour for Board photos is black. I wanted to portray power, as well as celebrate my femininity – I wanted to say to all who looked at the photo: “Here is a strong powerful person, who is proud of and comfortable in her femininity, who acknowledges and celebrates the female energy and value that she brings to this organization”. And for some reason, I chose pink. When I saw the final photo, I said “YES” that’s exactly what I wanted. I felt, and looked, very PINK!

Today I want to share with you my thoughts on the power of pink – what it means to me, and what it means to the movement to vanquish breast cancer

What does the colour pink mean?

Pink is not just a diluted version of red – it is a strong, powerful colour with its own meaning. It is the colour most associated with femininity, and has traditionally been seen as being a weak colour for this very reason. Yet, have you noticed the numbers of men who confidently wear pink nowadays? Indeed, whenever I see a man in pink, I am moved to say to him “Hey – real men wear pink you know”!

Pink is actually far from representing weakness, for pink is the colour of universal love. It is a quiet colour that reflects the peace and tranquillity of the one love that encompasses all humankind – one love, one heart could ONLY be pink. We use pink when we want to create calm, order, relaxation and contentment. What a beautiful world a pink world is! Think of how you feel when you are in a pink room. Think of a pink sky, the gentleness of pink flowers, the sweetness of a baby girl dolled up in pink.

So, how do I come to associate PINK with POWER?

What does the power of PINK mean to me? PINK Power, which is a loving power, describes 4 things for me:

1. Potential
2. Invincibility
3. Nurturing
4. Knowing

Our power begins with our potential – we have the potential to be anything and everything to which we aspire, to do anything and everything we desire and to have anything and everything that is our wont. We have unlimited potential; we are beings of unlimited potential – whatever we can imagine, we can create, be, do and have. We can be, do and have anything we have not even yet imagined. For it is our thoughts, our imagination that is unlimited.

An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between little men and great men – Thomas Fuller, 17th century writer

But imagination is not enough. It is never enough to dream something. Our dreams must always be accompanied with a sense of invincibility. How many of us know and recognise our potential, yet suffer from a paucity of belief in ourselves? Our world, our nation is rife with people of all ages whose daily mantra is “I can’t”, even while they recognise that there is more to life than what they currently have.

Interesting that pink also means being in the highest or peak form – so that when we say that Asafa Powell is in the pink of condition, we really do mean that he is unstoppable, invincible!

Like Asafa, we want to express the power of pink in our belief in our unlimited potential (I mean how much faster can he go!) and our invincibility.

Now, I have a confession to make. I used to have this HUGE “S” on my chest that I wore with pride. This “S” was so huge you couldn’t even see me. All you could see was a big overworked, sleep-deprived, pulled-in-all-directions, can’t-say-no-to-anything bundle of energy. All of this in the quest for my unlimited potential. I was truly invincible. And I loved it. Everyone loved it – Marguerite is so amazing the things she does, Marguerite is so wonderful, Ask Marguerite, she will get it done, yada yada yada.

But I realised something one day: to balance our sense of invincibility, we want to be very careful to be nurturing. We want to make time to love and nurture ourselves, time to do – nothing. We want to learn to say “NO”. Full stop. We want to learn that stress is something we choose over own ourselves, and not something that others place on us. We must always, always remember that we cannot take care of others if we have do not take care of ourselves. And even though I know this, I must confess that I still have the “S” on my chest, but it’s a little smaller – but I’m working on it

And finally – knowledge and knowing. It is so important to equip ourselves with knowledge. And so easy nowadays. Google is my best friend, my confidante, my guide. Google knows everything I am thinking about, for I ask Google everything. If you want to know what’s on my mind, check my google searches. We have no excuse not to know things – knowledge is there in abundance.

Yet, even more important than knowledge, which is external, is what I term the knowing. Our knowing is that inner voice that speaks to us all the time and tells us exactly what to do when and how. Our knowing is our true guide and friend. Our knowing is what really tells us if we are on the right track to achieving our potential. Our knowing is what makes us invincible, for it is what keeps us going when everyone around us is telling us to “get real”. Our knowing is what tells us when it is time to stop, rest and nurture.

The power of pink – when we think about it this way, we can see that it really is no accident that pink is the colour of triumph over breast cancer. We do have the potential to vanquish it from out midst – and we will. There is no doubt, we KNOW that we, not breast cancer, are invincible.

And do you notice that this victory is a very nurturing one? We are learning to take care of ourselves, to listen to our bodies, to take care of each other. And I am just amazed at the knowledge that we have developed about the topic – it’s amazing the research, the studies and the numerous approaches to prevention and cure.

So it is with the Power of Pink in our lives – our unlimited potential as human beings; our invincibility to be, do and have anything and everything we desire; our nurturing of the divine within us and our knowing of who we really are – magnificent beyond all measure. When I wear pink, this is what I mean. When I wear pink, I am reflecting this. When I say “I am PINK”, I really mean:

I am potential
I am invincible
I am nurturing
I am knowing
I am powerful
I am love.

I am PINK!