Guest Post: Blue

B asked me to do a guest post today which is timely because I've had this "thing" on my mind.  Earlier today, I listened to a podcast for the excellent program Radiolab.  Their latest episode, "Colors," is a fascinating look at the visible spectrum we call light.  This is even more impressive considering the that medium for Radiolab is entirely sound.

Without spilling all the beans, there was a section that was particular interesting to me and semi-relavent to this blog.  The color blue, which happens to be my favorite color, is actually a relatively recent concept in human history.  While we have always had the ability to see the spectrum of light called blue, we haven't always had a name for it.  We know this because ancient texts including Homer's Odyssey contains some really strange color references for things that we would normally call blue...without actually calling them blue.

Scientists theorize that having a label for blue back then just wasn't that useful.  There were no blue eyes in ancient Greece, no blue fruits or vegetables.  There definitely weren't any dangerous animals that are blue.  Blue pigment and dyes wouldn't come along for a long time.  In short, blue wasn't on the radar for an ancient Greek.

That got me thinking.

Are there things out there that we can perceive just fine that we don't notice? How many colors/ smells/ sounds/ tastes are there that don't have a label?  Are there emotions or feelings I can't relate because they don't have a name?

Assigning a name (blue) to things (the sky) does open up a whole new world by allowing us to communicate.  However, it sets limits as well.  For example, the sky is never just blue, in fact of 24 hours during the day, it is often not blue.  Yet, for most people, the sky is blue and we leave it at that.  It makes one think.  Are we missing the colors of the sky that are not blue?

It goes deeper than that.  Can we know what we don't know we're missing?

It happened with blue so it could definitely happen again.  The challenge for today:  Try to notice what you normally ignore.  Be "present" enough to experience all your senses working in the background.  Listen to the noise and see if there is, indeed, something there.  You might be surprised and discover something new for all of us.