24 March 2009

Pink Tastes Like Salmon


My friend is color-blind. Frankly, I've been thinking it's a tragedy, because I am in love with color. I want to eat it, dress in it, and dance in it. I want to marry color.

The poor color-blind soul. Does he not know that those birds are blue? And what about the grass? Can he tell when it is dead? What about the green light traffic light? Does he just have to remember that the bottom light means go? And what if he forgets? What if the red light lights up for people to stop, and he goes through the intersection because he thought it was green? Would he die?

We looked through a bag of Sour Patch Kids. I wanted a red kid and was digging through to find one. As I sifted through the bag, I asked him, "Can you tell which one is which flavor?" He picked out a green one.

"I don't know what color this is. I have to taste it to find out." And with that he popped it into his mouth and determined that it was green.

It was right then that I decided his life might actually be better than mine. What if, because he can't see color, his other senses are better? You know, like when someone is blind, they tend to have better hearing. And when someone is deaf, they have stronger eyes. I think color blind people must have better taste buds. Tasting color would be the ultimate super-power for color-lovers.

I told him my theory, "I think you have better taste buds than the rest of us." And with that, I solved his problem.

From here on out, whenever he isn't sure of a color, all he has to do is taste it. If he's not sure the color of the wall, all he's got to do is lick it. Cherry-flavored? It's red. Lime flavored? It's green. I can just see him getting ready for school. Bending down, he starts licking his shoes to find the blue ones. He skips over the chocolate flavored shoes, the lemon ones, and the OJ flavored basketball shoes. Finally, the last pair in his closet tastes like Windex.

2 comments:

McKenzie Hansen said...

Laura, I absolutely love you!!! The last sentence of this post is genius . . .

Bethany said...

Oh I agree, Laura. Tasting color is the ultimate super-power for color-lovers. Brilliant solution to your friend's problem.