Snack #6: Colors and Cats
A lesson from a Cat:
I live with 2 cats. One is an independent goddess of mischief and curiosity, and the other is an anxious scared cat, constantly asking for attention, or hiding. Seeing the cats grow up, it was clear that each had their own character, but it is even more interesting to see them grow up into their respective paths. The goddess balanced out, allowing herself to be pet, but the scared cat remains scared, hiding under couches, meowing, yowling, and scratching for his life at 5am for attention outside the bedroom door.
I really grew to not like that cat - I don't like to treat animals very differently from humans, and I treat the cats as roommates - taking that into consideration, he is the worst roommate that I could ask for. He isn't around for nice things, like petting and holding, and only around to consume resources, attention, and disturb my sleep...but is it under his control? I shouldn't be quick to judge. If people can be anxious for many reasons, and suffer from constant anxiety as I do in some periods of my life, why can't cats?
Can I accept this and live peacefully with him, accept him to my circle when it's clear it's not making me feel better? Am I becoming a better person by doing this, or is it just suffering? I'm trying my best to practice empathy, but sleep is very precious to me.
A lesson from a thing: The Natural History Museum
Are we paint, or light?
Colors only exist in our minds, the color we see is only the one that an object reflects. It absorbs all other lights and rejects one tone back to our eyes, where an image is constructed based on the spectrum of visible light.
What if objects also reflect different colors, ones that are not within our visible spectrum? What if we haven't evolved to see all the colors properly, or we are color blind, at least partially?
The color blue didn't exist until recent history, it started existing more in our minds when we started naming it. Before that, it was called green, or sometimes black. What if we never named blue? What if there are other colors to name?
What if colors are emotions and behaviors? Do people only reflect certain emotions at certain times, or do we project a specific color onto them, that forces our mind to see them - the reflection of our projection - in that color?
What if we don't know all the emotions, or are still too underdeveloped to recognize a broader spectrum or just more definition? How can we tell?
When you paint red, yellow, and blue onto a surface, you'll get a very dark color, probably black or very close. Painting is combining different colors, meaning more colors are absorbed and not reflected, so in the end, all is absorbed.
When lighting instead of painting, we get the color white. Instead of withdrawing colors, we add, and it all combines into one beautiful combo to reach our eye as pure white.
What can I make of this? What is worse, the permanence of color or the fact that it brings black, where nothing reflects and we see emptiness?
And the lightness of light; the impermanence of it is great, it can be changed easily... But it can be changed easily, that's not always good.
Yet, with light, we add instead of subtracting.
We add perspective, energy, and the result is magic. Can we do that in real life with real people? Can we make them light by adding pieces, or does it not matter?
Is a person a color, or just what reflects off of them?
Dance:
Been a while since I danced with a Dancehall vibe. I definitely don't remember moves, but I was able to connect to my body, and then feel this specific kind of masculinity.