The world through Bernardo's eyes
My home monitor is about to meet its long home. The signs were evident, but I chose to overlook. At first, there was this kind of moisture on the screen, that made everything look hazy for a long time before getting in focus. During summer, it wasn't so bad because of the air conditioning. Then last week, something happened. The autumn landscape I use as background, which is fiery red, became greenish and pale. My yahoo mail, which I customized to be a kind of baby pink turned absolutely grey. My brain, still foggy from the lack of my morning coffee, asked: "What the heck happened to my reds?". Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had been given the chance to peek the world that Bernardo, my second child sees.
Color blindness runs in my family, as well as hearing problems, probably the result of generations of the marriage of consanguine relatives. My grandfather, from my father's side, was the first child in ages not to marry a cousin. It was traditional and kinda natural, since families here were huge. Well, my father is color blind, and I always thought that he was faking it to get attention. I only realized it was true when my two sons showed me that they had inherited that trait.
It is not a matter of seeing the world in black and white for them. I discovered that there are many kinds of color blindness and many degrees to it. It seems we see the colors the way we see it because we have red, green, and blue receptors in our eyes. My kids lack the proper amount of red receptors, but they still have some. Luiz was graced with more than Bernardo. So, given good lighting, he can mostly make out which color is which, having a slightly harder time with secundary hues like light oranges and browns. The world of Bernardo is not so subtle. If it is not a saturated red or a very strong shade of orange, he will not get it. There are no pinks, just greys. No violets. But it is mostly a greenish world.
He was six or seven when I finally understood this. We were in Disney World, during one of the best trips of my life, going back to the hotel from the parks, and he asked me why Nala is green and Simba is yellow. And then if he was yellow, why he becomes green when he gets older. For a moment, I glimpsed the Lion King in my mind, just as my son described, green savannahs, populated by greenish lionesses, governed by a proud male who shook his rich green mane against the greenish sunset skies. But surprises never cease. When I got back home, I found out that my perfectly beige kitchen was green to Bernardo. My elegant wooden floor was green to Bernardo. Even my copper dyed hair had greenish hues to him. Yes, for him, probably mother was a Marcian.
It is not such a big deal to him. He says he likes green. I have tried to keep this in mind, inform his teachers (coloring exercises can be a disaster), and not call too much attention to this. He is pretty discreet about it too. I guess he got fed up very early at the way kids made fun of him about this, and decided to lay low. Also, I understand that independently of our ability to diferentiante colors, we all have very particular ways to perceive the world. In the end, it probably doesn't make any difference for him or for any of us. I also understand that I should plan on buying a new monitor for my computer pretty soon, before green becomes definitely black. But for a while, I am taking a time looking the world on my screen with Bernardo's eyes.
2 Comments:
interesting Livia, a green simba would be a sight to see.
As I sit here in a red sweater, I wonder what the world would be like with limited color sight.
Thanks for sharing and sorry the monitor is heading out
Jody
A red sweater would still be red for Bernardo! The problem is with the orange, the browns, the beiges, the pinks, the violets and so oh. The funny thing is that he likes red. Probably bc he doesn't get "tired" of it. LOLOL
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