Color

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I saw this commercial recently. It actually isn't really a commercial, but more of an unexpected emotional experience. When we have talked about sight in class, I have only thought of blindness as being the opposite of sight. But in fact, colorblindness could be another opposite, and perhaps even a worse opposite. Imagine you can see, but you cannot see color. You know when other people look at the trees or grass they see green, but you see grey. Imagine how frustrating and internally upsetting that must be- you can see exactly what they are seeing, but cannot see the color! Personally, after seeing this commercial, I have come to understand I take color for granted. We all do- it has always been there for us. Although color is a personal experience, we all have a general understanding of what green is, or yellow, or blue, and we all have a favorite color. We do not truly understand how much color plays into our world and how we act and move about this life. Color shapes our world. We wear colors we think look good on us, choose things that have a pleasing color, eat foods that are bright, paint our rooms in attractive shades- color is how we live! Even in the most basic way, color saves our life every day, in the red and green traffic lights and signs. So imagine if all of that choice was taken away from you. No more colors... just grey. What would you do? How would you live? I can't imagine what that would be like. Right now as I type I am looking at a jar of colored pencils, in many different shades and colors.

Sight is so important to us- it guides us in life, it is how we can interact with people... but color is a major component of that. Looking into someone's eyes and not being able to see their color. Would it have an effect on how we connect with people? Enjoying a sunset or sunrise with friends, or seeing the stained glass of Notre Dame. How would we describe the things around us?

After seeing this commercial I think I know the answer. It would affect us if we couldn't see color.. it does affect those who don't see color. To quote the girl at the end of the commercial, "color is amazing experience."

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