What if the world lost all its color?
What if all that we had left to see were textures and shades?
What if we only saw the appearance and shapes of things?
Some of us would go crazy and desperate to have to live in such a drastic and dreary universe. “There’s something missing! I need more!” That’s very true! You need more and you are missing something, especially if you used to have the color and now live without it. It would be like giving up any other thing: breaking habits or losing relationships would easily compare to the despair that I admittedly would feel if suddenly the world lost its hues and shades. These people would only see the dark gray covering up the lighter gray shapes instead of highlights and shadows. They wouldn’t see the shades of light gray in the clouds, only patches of scratchy paint on a dull canvas.
Some of us would adapt, which is good, but then they would settle and lose the joy and become monotonous. Which is bad. We should adapt, just like animals adapt, like the finches on the island that Darwin thought was proof of evolution but then later denounced himself. Humans in fact adapt. How do you think we have so many different colors of skin and different features? So, if we settled for monotony, what would happen? How boring would life be if we all started moping through life, heads tilted down? Did you know that having your head down for long periods of time, or generally tilting it down, that you will have a generally depressed mood? I mean seriously, you don’t see people with faces up towards the sun saying “hey…”, or people with heads down and probably looking at their phones saying “Oh my goodness you look so cute today! I can’t wait to hang out with you later this evening!” So, if people settled and let the colorless world steal their joy and good moods away, what would happen to all the people? What would happen to all the artists and writers if they couldn’t find inspiration in a dreary world? What would happen to all the business men and women who psychologically and unconsciously draw energy from the colors around them to get through the day? What would happen to school and teaching little children and holding their attention with no colors? What about traveling to different countries and you don’t know the languages but you know that green signs are traffic and orange signs are construction? Life would be dull and confusing and dangerous.
Some of us, the rest of us, would adapt like we must, but they would find beauty again and be thankful for it. They would see the movement of the leaves and know which part shines brighter, divert attention to the jumbled shadows of leaves and branches on the ground, tracking shapes and outlines as they create stories. Perhaps they see a whale rearing back preparing to buck up and break the surface of the water and spray out water. Maybe they see faces, like the drama faces that are sad and happy, maybe some of them have long noses or lots of ponytails on their head, maybe they see a child laughing at the birds zooming and swooping and catching the air drifts. They would see the cracks in the bricks and see which ones are older by the different shades of gray and wonder how it got there and why that brick needed to be replaced. What if some crazy guys were making a human pyramid and fell over and someone cracked their head and the corner brick? Or maybe workers were lifting a gigantic ceramic Christmas tree and the rope was snapped because a raccoon had gnawed into the rope in the middle of the night as the equipment sat to be used the next day? They could see the spiraling and scattering speckles of such detailed shades in people’s eyes that they’d be lost in studying the value and essence in each pair.
And aren’t these outcomes true for everyone? Depression, chaos, and resurrection? Isn’t reality categorized into these three respects? Is it not true for the path through life and subsequently to eternity as well? We feel depressed, we feel stress, we feel resurrected, which directly influence our response to salvation and eternity? Reality really isn’t that different than it was for generations ago and happenings and occasions don’t appear independently to create new challenges. Anything that our ancestors and predecessors endured we can endure; war, economic catastrophe, political uprisings and unrest have all existed before and they exist now. The American heritage, the family heritage, our heritage, is to adapt, sacrifice, and stride through the chaos and challenges of our times with dignity and respect, patience, diligence, and wisdom. That is our American heritage and responsibility. That is our privilege and duty as citizens to see our country through the hard times and look back and see her survive. Make sure America survives.
