The Color of Things

There's this long-standing argument between Best Friend Boy and me about colors.

One evening many years ago, we were watching Cast Away. Cast Away is one of the most depressing movies of all time. This is not an opinion. This is a fact.

Depressing movies either make you want to cry or punch something. This one made me want to do both--simultaneously, repetitively, and immediately. However, I didn't want to cry in front of my friends, and there was nothing satisfying enough to punch except for Etch-a-Sketch's cat that was sitting on Best Friend Boy's lap. Had I punched that cat, Best Friend Boy probably would have punched me. So I didn't punch the cat, and instead started arguing with Best Friend Boy as an acceptable substitute for outletting the feelings of extreme frustration and loneliness that losing Wilson had evoked.

We argued about the nature of perception and reality. Best Friend Boy championed reality as, well, a reality. However, I maintained that reality doesn't matter that much.

"What people think about reality, whether it's true or not, is what's important!" I told him. "Perception can change everything."

Rebuttal from Best Friend Boy.

"Think about it," I said. "If I say your shoes are purple, it doesn't matter whether they are or not. I'll still interact with them like they are purple-"

"They're white," Best Friend Boy said.

"Nope, from now on they're purple."

Best Friend Boy implied that he wouldn't be caught dead wearing purple shoes, so I told him fine, they were orange. And I've called them orange ever since. Just to prove a point.

Now, at the time I wasn't being entirely serious. I was trying to burn off some of my excess feelings and also annoy Best Friend Boy because annoying Best Friend Boy used to be one of my favorite pastimes. The part of me that was, in fact, being serious thought only of how a positive attitude can work wonders or how faith in the face of overwhelming odds ignites miracles. "Perception is more important than reality," I said, but I didn't know how true that was until now.

There are people who live in a world created by perception. Every time they see white, they say it's orange. Soon orange is all that exists for them. I could take them to the top of a snow-covered mountain, and they'd look around at the pure, glittering snow and say, "Wow, it's so orange up here!"

This happens way too often for my comfort.

The twenty-first century is awesome. And by awesome, I mean awful. But also awesome. Because the way we're able to so totally and completely delude ourselves can't help but be awesome, right?

Right?

Maybe if I perceive it that way, I'll feel better.