Full Spectrum Life

The human eye can perceive about a million different colors and you ask me to choose just one as my favorite. With such a rich abundance of choices, I can afford to be greedy. Why settle for a primary, secondary, or tertiary color, when I can dive into countless hues and tints, shades and pigments. I can be a collector of colors, profligate in my choices.

Yes, there are some colors that are easier to live with, some that make me feel upbeat, some that relax me, some that try my very being. They are each and every one of them perfection in just in the right place or time. When I was younger I loved yellow—yellow dresses, yellow bedroom, sun-shiny yellow flowers. Now I look horrid in that color. Other than a yellow tulip or a banana, you are unlikely to find that color anywhere near me. I try to surround myself with colors that complement my complexion and accommodate my mood. For example, my bedroom’s pale pink walls softly lull me to sleep and the deep wine, indigo and cream of my living room offers solid assurance that there is a place to read and ruminate, to be cocooned and creative.

Colors seem stable and defined, but they are not. My pattern of rods and cones pick up light differently than yours, and send slightly different signals to our brains.  Colors are frisky and changeable. They can be metameric and change depth and hue depending on the light they appear in. Bewitching purple will be one color in the store, another in your home, and another outdoors. Mischievous, mysterious, ever changing and beguiling. How can I be loyal when the colors themselves are not? The wavelengths of light reflected off the bits and pieces of the world color my mood and mind.

As for the black type that absorbs all light and the white paper that this is printed on, which reflects as much light as white paper can, well, there’s a topic for another essay. In the meantime, I will grab the whole panoply of color my eyes can grab. Here’s to a full spectrum life.

Marsha H.

Apr 11, 2020