What If Cows Were Green And Grass Was Orange?

My father was color blind, and consequently all my brothers and their sons too. Color blindness has it downside, but it also broadened my horizons and taught me at a young age to have a questioning mind. School and education was not a priority in my family and we were welcome to quit anytime we chose. The only stipulation was that we must have a job.

My brother, Roger, like a lot of teens at that time, went to work at the tender age of 15. He got a position with a huge conglomerate in our city of Montreal. The dress code was a typical white shirt, tie and, hopefully, a matching suit. Now with Roger being color blind this became a bit of a dilemma for him. He would have no idea if he was wearing green socks with a red tie and blue suit, or even one orange sock coupled with a purple one!

My sister, Marie and I spent a lot of time with our brother Roger, as well as our other siblings. It was a common practice for the younger ones to spend any amount of time with the older siblings. Because Roger was one of the first ones from home to go off to work, we took an inordinate amount of pride in him and his achievements and were very anxious for him to succeed in life.

If ‘seeing is believing’ what happened to taste, touch, sound and smell ? Did our creator really intend to favour sight over the other senses? I don’t believe so ~ Alex Morritt

Each morning before Roger went off to work, Marie and I would go into his closet and prepare his wardrobe for the day. We took a lot of pleasure in this task. Luckily for us this went on for many years.

One weekend, the family happened to be out in the country and as we were strolling along with Roger, he casually commented on the green cow eating orange grass! This did not give us cause for alarm. Sometimes he saw only shades of a particular color and other times it would be distinct hues that he would notice.

I would think about these times frequently as time went on, not only because they were amusing memories, but also because they gave me food for thought.  Today, I would ask myself if someone told me “the grass is green” or “the sky is blue” … is that really true? How is it that only some people get to decide what is true for the rest of us? Was Roger wrong in thinking the cow was green and the grass was orange? What if he was right all along, and we have it all wrong?

If I am told something now, even at this mature stage in my life, I still question it. Is it really true, no matter the source of the information, or do I get to decide for myself what the true answer is. I think I will always decide to choose for myself.