Characters of C O L O R

They say that some of mankind’s most prideful accomplishments in technology, through taxing calculations and abstract ideas, have in the end come to mirror those very things that have existed for thousands of years in nature. Pico and micro fibers of this and that on the smallest computer chips—likened most ironically to the oldest of our elders--crustaceans and insects. But when technology is a goal for the collective, the individual—who so often gets lost in the process for progression—has an entirely different goal in life... One that has a greater lasting impression and purpose, a greater permanence, than all else to be said at the time of one's death—

Character.  Surprised?  One oughtn't be.  Yet, sadly, this is a noun seldomly heard upon the graduation of elementary school.

C H A R A C T E R.

Who are you? What are you about?  Contrary to modern convention, no compliment should express more flattery than "quite a character".  Where do you opinions, as radical or moderate as they be, STEM from? That's character. (Anyone who thinks 'stem cells' qualifies to be one of my very best friends in sharing my geekdom.) Fortunately for us, Mother Nature has philanthropically offered us the most obvious of clues, both us and even our ancestors of a thousand years ago; an analogous example so omnipresent it would take only a blind person to miss…

Color.

A swift science lesson—with no intention to undermine anyone’s intelligence, of course. Color as we perceive it is merely a consequence of the intrinsic properties of the objects to which we associate them to. These objects, as well as those. His wisdom-clad hair a silvery grey and her beautiful blue eyes; that apple’s tantalizing lipstick-red skin and the color of your bedroom walls which, almost always, seem to invite and comfort you in a way no place on earth can—all of these things have characteristic, innate wavelength properties that distinguish them from one another in the presence of day. White light, which encompasses the entire spectrum of visible rays, most obviously enables your eyes to see everything around you. The colors that they assume are those sections of the spectrum that are not absorbed when white light shamelessly exposes itself to their surface. It is this concept that enthralled us as children when normal objects appeared different colors when shone upon by only red/blue/green light. If you are only providing a portion of the spectrum, you greatly limit the uniqueness to which the object chooses to pick up X Y and Z wavelengths while deflecting C.

People, in terms of social interaction, play the exact same role as light in terms of displaying our character, and who we are on the inside. Like the object that has these innate properties or characteristics, we too have our own intrinsic factors that simply make me Me and you You. The very pre-programming that markedly distinguishes us from being empty file cabinets, waiting to be filled with experiences from life that, only then, solely and entirely will dictate our personality and thoughts…

But alas, it is through meeting people--through relating with them, agreeing and resonating in opinion with them or, just as significantly, finding qualities or ways of thinking that surprisingly do not sit well with us or perhaps make us uncomfortable—that we are able to, stroke by stroke, pencil out a clearer image of who we are as a person, and our character. Without these interactions we’d be greatly hindered from discerning almost anything about ourselves [as many studies have shown].

Alors... this point has hopefully not stirred you into agitation rather than fancy given its redundancy, but the closing metaphor is this—as it would be impossible to ascertain the granny apple from the rouge in a room 'alive' with light, it too is just as impossible to bring to life—to materialize or surface one’s character and personality, that at birth was preemtively buried within, without the help of people to...would you say... shed some light?