Color-Blindness (20221204)

Isihara Images for Color-Blindness

Red-green, blue-yellow. Too much of one, not enough of another. Numbers and pathways hidden in plain sight. Colors we don’t realize we are missing and thus skewing vistas without our knowledge or awareness.

This is just too good a metaphor for so many things in life.

I count myself as a decent, if not great, puzzle solver and pattern recognizer. Lose some jewelry in the grass and I can usually find it. Have a computer that is glitching and I can sift through it to find the culprit. Have a word search puzzle that is stumping you and I can zoom in to the page patterns and pull it out (most of the time).

It is a skill I have counted on personally and professionally: the ability to see the exceptions within a situation.

So, I took a color blindness test to see how I faired. And the results came in…red-green color-blindness but to really determine which way I lean with red or green I would need to visit a doctor. The awareness it creates, however, is sobering and now I must wonder, how many puzzles and patterns slipped through my grasp because I could not make out the differentiating colors? What have I missed when I assumed I saw everything (or knew everything)? What’s the exception I have been overlooking?

And transmogrify that into relationships, who have I missed because I am better at focusing a certain way? What conversations slipped through my fingers when with awareness could have jostled me in a different direction? What in my life are the red and green moments that were totally invisible to me? What have I missed and now with my new knowledge how can I see more clearly? How can I change my view and thinking to get a glint of a new perspective…a little more red or green?

I could go on with additional metaphors and analogies but I will let your imagination sift through the various scenarios.

And I also have to realize the fact that I can’t see what I can’t see and discern. 

Ah, the price of knowledge…of self and of the world!

P.S. If you want to take an on-line test (remember only your doctor can truly determine your color attributes), go to https://www.colour-blindness.com/colour-blindness-tests/ishihara-colour-test-plates/

Idiocy and Redemption (20221130)

While I find myself overwhelmed by the idiocy and spitefulness of news and social media posts and misinformation, I also find myself more and more surrounded by books and readings on kindness, gratitude, generosity, and thoughtfulness.

It’s a battle of the crud of the world against the sanity of hope, truth and integrity.

Wonder who will win (in the world and in my life)?

Galatians 5

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.