The sky is blue, or at least I think it is | GARY COSBY JR.
I sometimes say in frustration that we are so divided we can't even agree that the sky is blue. True statement, the sky really isn't blue. In fact, color isn't real, at least not like you think it to be.
"Oh man," you must be groaning, "he has really flipped his lid this time." But, in actuality, color isn't real. It is a creation of the human brain. Atoms, of which everything is composed, have no inherent color. Any pile of atoms in any form is colorless.
What you see as color is a particular wavelength of light, either direct light or reflected light, that your brain interprets as a particular color. I sometimes get a little worked up when I see a photo of outer space and it says it is a false color image then I remember, all images are false color images.
Yeah, I know, y'all are collectively scratching your heads right now and wondering what kind of drink I got into before writing. Seriously, though, if you think about it, how in the world did we all come to agree that blue is blue, green is green and red is red and how do I know that the red I see is the same as the red you see? You see? It is crazy!
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When I start to think about things like this, and I do think this way from time to time – and don't even get me started on sound – I become more and more fascinated with the process of how we got here and how we all came to be in such close agreement.
Evolution, if you believe in that theory, is, or was, pure chaos. Evolution was said to have tried a number of things, discarded them, tired some more things until it finally struck upon the magic that made us who we are. That's a vast oversimplification, but the junkyard of evolution is pretty heavily populated with discards.
But here we are, every species on the planet each living in well-defined and classifiable forms. That's all the species on the planet in well-defined forms at the same time. In other words, the evolutionary process isn't transforming chimps into men just now – anywhere.
And the thing that I have the hardest time grasping is how we all came to have such similar understanding of the world around us. How, in fact, did blue become blue to literally everyone? More importantly, how did each individual come to be so, well, not all that individual? We are composed of the seemingly contradictory ideas of being both diverse and similar.
OK, so does any of this have an actual point? Good question and I'm not completely sure. Grappling with a question is not exactly the same as answering the question, but grappling with a question is the only way we ever find an answer.
Ah, but maybe there is a point to this after all. As similar as we are and as diverse as we are, we have, in fact, determined that the sky is blue, the grass is green and that the color red is red. We agreed.
It doesn't matter which race, which culture, which civilization, or which religious system we embrace, blue is still blue. Man, that does give me some hope after all. A road is bordered on each side by a ditch. We are safe if we stay on the road and in our lane. Things get out of control when we get into a ditch on either side.
If, for instance, a group of people begin to insist that the sky is not blue and the grass is not green, but those colors are actually purple and gold, we are going to have a problem. We are similar to every other person in the world, and we are also different. But there are certain things we all agree on and these help ground us and give us stability.
We find such stability in our religious systems. Most people around the world believe in God, though there are many different religions. We are similar and we are different. Virtually everyone exists under some form of government, but those forms of government are varied. We are similar and we are different.
I think the color blue, any color actually, can teach us an awful lot about being human. Most of this crazy world is a construct of our collective perceptions. As such, we must operate with some consistencies, and we must expect some divergences. These concepts are healthy and natural and necessary as long as they don't veer into those proverbial ditches on either side of the road of life.
Since we have our disagreements over the various issues of life, it is probably a good idea to remember that the person with whom we differ also knows the sky is blue and the grass is green.
Gary Cosby Jr. is the photo editor of The Tuscaloosa News. Readers can email him at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: The sky is blue, or at least I think it is | GARY COSBY JR.
