The view from my window for about the past week has been white—snow-covered. I guess, really, it’s been grey; grey skies, grey light, grey trees. Grey. But, this storm that has covered the mid-west and brought dangerously frigid temperatures was nearly the “perfect” storm. It began when the temperatures were just hovering around the freezing mark, so the snow stuck to everything. When the temperature dropped, the new, fluffier snow had a base to cling to. Every night, we’ve had a new layer of fresh flakes, and the puffy clumps are still decorating the trees and roofs, railings and fences of my neighborhood. I yearn for color!
Color Theory and the Color White
My mother was a professor of clothing and textiles, and a big part of what she taught her students surrounded color theory and using color in fashion and presentation. She taught about skin tone and choosing flattering hues long before the Color Me Beautiful craze of the 1980s. Color theory tells us that what we see as “white” isn’t an absence of color, but rather it is what we see when all of the colors of the visible spectrum collide.
I love color. I’ve always loved multi-colored things. When presented with a choice I will nearly always choose something that is more than one color. I struggle to name a favorite color—my fallback is “green.” But really, how to choose just one? My four-year-old grandson has solved that conundrum by saying his favorite color is “red” (long, dramatic pause) “and blue.”
Recently, I learned about a profound interaction between the author, Kate DiCamillo and a young reader. DiCamillo is the author of The Tale of Despereaux and Because of Winn Dixie, among other books for children and young and not-so-young adults. When asked how she gets so much hope into her stories, DiCamillo told the boy that she doesn’t actually try to fit hope into the story, rather, by telling the story the hope emerges. It is by writing the story that she plants hope.
Changing Perspectives
And so it was with this blog. The view outside my window hasn’t changed a bit—unless there is just a bit more snow clinging to the branches—but my perspective has. And, isn’t that what we hope for?
Each season of life brings new and different experiences and it seems that if we open ourselves to finding new perspectives, we may find ourselves growing and learning. So, instead of seeing the monochromatic white verging on grey, I’m reminding myself that what I am seeing is the collision of every color imaginable. The joy of everything all mixed up, the exuberance of God’s creation. Hope.
Metaphorically, this white vision is what I pray for. That the vast differences in our world might somehow be seen as a beautiful, coordinated, and equal expression of joy and peace and hope. It is impossible to divide those lumps of snow into clumps that don’t include blue or red or green. They are all there, and every gradation in between shining into the world. The trick is to remember! Remember to look at things another way; remember to be curious; remember to love each and every color that mixes to make something brilliant.
We might even sit down with a pen or a computer screen and write that new hopeful perspective into existence.
For Reflection (either individually or with a group)
Read the blog. Read it a second time, maybe reading it aloud or asking someone else to read it aloud so you can hear it with different intonation and emphases. Invite the Divine to open your heart to allow the light of new understanding to pierce the shadows of embedded assumptions, stereotypes, and ways of thinking so that you may live more abundantly. Then spend some time with the following questions together with anything or anyone who helps you reflect more deeply.
- What is your favorite color? What is your least favorite color? What are your associations with each color?
- For a week, look in your world for your least favorite color. Keep an open mind in looking for this color around you. Where did you see it where you expected to see it? Where did you unexpectedly see it? Did this exercise in any way change your thinking about this color?
- How can you remind yourself to intentionally look at your world through a new lens or perspective?
Download a pdf including the Reflection Questions to share and discuss with friends, family, or members of your faith community small group.
