Purple haze

This is what I'm studying for Sunday School this week, and I invite you to join me. There's some great stuff detailing the tireless missionary efforts of Paul and his colleagues.

For now, though, there's one phrase from the scripture block that stands out. Lydia, one of Paul's converts, is described as "a seller of purple." Deep down, I know this means she was either selling purple fabric of some kind, or purple dye--both high end items at that time. But it's way more fun to imagine Lydia just having piles (or vats, or racks, or whatever) of "purple" to sell in the bazaar. It could be a marketing scam along the lines of naming stars, those "Who's Who" publications, or getting people to buy vowels (Os or otherwise).

If Lydia is selling pure purple, here are some ideas of what the actual product might be, in ascending order of likeliness:

--These are given away for free, so it's unlikely anyone would be selling them

--A purple pastry maker

--A purple telephone?

--An engrossing visual and sonic experience

--There are many shades of purple, of course, from dark to light (the first video looks like an SNL sketch but is all too real; the latter is probably one of the top 5 SNL sketches of all time)

--Purple is a fruit

--And since it's a fruit, it stands to reason there would be a fake fruit version as well. I could go for some purple stuff right now

All of those items would've likely been hot sellers back in the 1st century AD, but if you're looking for straight-up purple, it doesn't get any better than my man Grimace.

I'm convinced this is it...after all, just a few verses after Lydia and her purple are mentioned, the scriptures say "the magistrates...laid many stripes upon them [and] cast them into prison." Of course, "billions served" meant something very different to Paul than it does to Ronald.