The Hue Dilemma

The hue dilemma

How do you explain something that exists, is tangible and quantifiable, but not physically solid, to a blind person? Of course, it’s imperative to understand the actual challenge first. So, before I head out to meet Dani, a student I’m tutoring, I go through a few rituals.

First. I challenge myself to imagine a new color. It takes me ages, but finally I have a weird one that looks like a shade of light bluish-green. My subconscious mind immediately associates this gruesome invention with a ‘queasy’ feeling. Then it hits me — Just transform the colors into parameters that can be comprehended, like emotions.

I head out to meet Dani. She says she feels quite despondent and makes a joke that it reminds her of the darkness she always sees with her eyes shut. I see a chance to turn a gloomy moment into a positive one, and hand her a freshly plucked rose.

Dani says she loves the way the flower feels against her fingers. I clasp her hands around the rose and move it all the way up to her eyes. The dull tinge and barely perceptible shadow of dark red against her eyes excites her, and she smiles. I tell her she’s just sensed a new color today, one that she will forever associate with the lifting of spirits when they seem to be at their worst.

“One down”, I tell myself on the way home, “I wonder how blue will make her feel tomorrow.”