About a month ago, I was sitting with Ted watching a fire burn in our fireplace in Olympia, when I began to think about the nature of color. I thought back to an elementary school science experiment when we held a crystal up to a window to catch the sunlight. In amazement, we watched as the prism radiated all the colors of the rainbow! I know now that the prism merely reflected the colors that exist all around us at all times, and that an opaque object absorbs colors, thereby appearing dark. But what I still do not understand is how we are able to see so many colors at the same time!?! Think about it - all colors exist at all times, but we do not perceive all colors at all times. Instead, we see an incredibly complex array of colors and shades, which we can perceive and discern simultaneously. In fact, if we looked at a wall containing all the colors of the world, we would be able to perceive all the various shades all at the same time with no trouble! What an incredible feat!
And yet, behind the colors that we do see are all the colors that we do not see. For example, if we look at a dark blue couch, we do not see all the colors that the couch absorbed to appear dark blue. But those colors still exist! Behind everything seen is a whole array of things that are unseen!
This concept was reinforced to me on our flight back from Memphis to Seattle. Seattle, like Eor from Winnie the Pooh, always seems to have a grey cloud hanging over it, as those of you who live near there can attest :-) But as we were flying towards Seattle, all we could see was a brilliant sunny sky framing the low hanging grey clouds. Though the people on the ground could not perceive the beautiful blue sky - it was there just above the clouds. Behind everything seen is a whole array of things that are unseen!
I find this thought wonderfully comforting! Imagine walking out on a rainy, cloudy day. The sky is oppressively low and dark, the rain pounding, everyting cast in a pallor of gloom. Of course, you might feel overcast as well. But all is not as it seems! Above the clouds is a sunny sky, just waiting for the clouds to pass before it can become visible!
We should always question what is lying just beyond the edges of our perceptions - just behind the veil of what we can see and what we think we know. We may just find all the colors of the rainbow!
Posting By: Rebecca
Photo By: Ted (taken in California)
2 comments:
Glad to see that you are back. I don't think folks in Seattle look for the blue sky above all of those rain clouds. We will post by the end of the week photos of Sand Lakes in June.
Hey, no need to suck up to Mary. She will let you ride her ATV no matter how old you say she is!!!
Glad to see that you are back.
Us native Washingtonians don't really think about the blue sky above the rain clouds too much!
No need to suck up to Mary. She will let you ride her ATV no matter how old you think she is.
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