Colors and... nano or native pager??

[promulgato@xxxxxxxx]

Hello everyone, this is my first message and I am new to Mutt... 
installed 1.4.2.3 a few days ago... so far the learning curve 
seems to be pretty steep, but at last I got to the point where I am 
actually emailing with it. :)

I use it from console most of the time and tried a couple of color 
combinations, but the bright colors coupled with the traditional 
black background get to fatigue my eyes very quickly.
My preference would be a white/light gray background and not-too- 
bright colors that are easy on the eyes.
I do not know enough to create my own, so can someone suggest 
where some good code to that extent for my .muttrc can be found?

Also, I am debating whether to keep nano as editor (which makes it 
much easier for me at this time) or force myself to revert to 
the editor/pager that comes with Mutt and force myself to use that 
instead from the very start... Advantages/disadvantages of using 
an external editor?

Thanks,
Franz