Color Blind

One of the tests that the Lions do on the young children detects color blindness -- a trait that is almost always found in boys.

The other day my husband said that they found three boys with it -- three boys who could not make out what was in the book at all.

The book that they use has circles with numbers in it.  There are little patches of color all over the circles in a certain design, with a number tucked into it.

When someone is color blind, what they see is kind of a washed out gray/brown color.  The reason is that they don't have enough cones in the back of their retinas to see color, predominantly red/green.  There is no correction for it.  I've always said that Christmas must be very strange for them -- everyone making such a fuss about a gray tree with more gray ornaments on it.  And Santa -- wow.  And fire trucks.

And traffic lights -- well, that is something kind of important.  The green should ALWAYS be on the bottom and the red on the top, because a color blind person is looking for a circle to light up so they know whether to go or stop.

Often, the parents are completely unaware of their child's problem.  Other times they aren't as surprised since it seems to be hereditary. 

It keeps a boy out of the military and probably some other jobs too. 

A friend of mine from childhood is color blind.  He didn't know it and no one else did either.  John was a great artist in elementary school -- the best of us.  He won all of the poster contests barely breaking a sweat.  Not only could he draw well, but his concepts on where to put what was also remarkable.  In college, John was getting ready for class one day and casually mentioned his brown slacks to his roommate who looked at him oddly.  "What do you mean brown; they are green."  And that was how John learned that he was color blind.

So what did John do?  Bury his head in the sand?  Oh no.  He started an advertising agency after college and did quite well for himself.  He found employees who could mix the colors and do the color selection while he met with clients and worked on the conceptual framework for the ads.

Our Lenten quote for today is:

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
― Francis of Assisi