E22 Living in Full Color - Do We... Can We?
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[00:00:00] Hello, my creative friend. Welcome to another episode of BDI Create today. I am so glad that you've chosen to spend some time with me today. Now talking about the Grand Canyon last week, it made me think of another Grand Canyon story, which made me think of the color wheel, which made me think of a metaphor.
So, you know how I like a metaphor. So today we are going to look at the color wheel. Through a metaphor that I found at the Grand Canyon. So first, just a super quick glimpse at the color wheel and the importance of full color in our lives. The color wheel is a radiant spectrum encompassing every hue imaginable.
That's full color.
This is a wheel of color where every single shade [00:01:00] has its place that contributes to the brilliance of the whole wheel. So people around the world, we are fascinated with color and in this fascination extends far beyond just creativity and reaches out into almost every aspect of our lives. Here's a few examples of how we as a world of humans are obsessed with color.
First, our fashion and our clothing. People around the world rely on color to make a statement. with what they're wearing. It doesn't matter who you are or where you live, you're probably making some sort of statement with what you're wearing.
Take a look at what you have on right now. What are you trying to say with the colors you chose today? Sometimes we choose colors to celebrate an occasion. Sometimes we choose colors because we are grieving for something or someone. And we spend countless hours each year [00:02:00] choosing colors for the clothes that we are going to wear.
We also spend a lot of time choosing the correct television or computer monitors because of our love of color. Each year we spend a lot of money buying televisions that have the most vivid, the crispest color that we can bring in to appreciate in whatever room we are viewing our televisions. We are careful to calibrate our computer monitors to have the very best and fullest color for whatever purpose we need to be seeing on screen.
And
research shows that colors evoke strong emotions and influence perceptions. So people worldwide spend a lot of time and resources choosing that perfect color to promote a business, to celebrate a happy occasion or to observe something [00:03:00] sad like a funeral.
And also to communicate messages for faith for the schools that we go to or for marketing some product that we want to sell. Color is key for communicating how we feel, what we want, and what we desire.
Now these are just a few examples of how important color choice is for people around the world. Our appreciation for living in full color truly enriches our lives every day.
We could not live without color. Or we couldn't live happily without color. So, let's now start my story from the Grand Canyon.
now, on one of my Grand Canyon visits, Tom and I were doing what most tourists do, which was see the canyon from as many points of interest as possible.
So, we were walking from site to site and also hopping on the [00:04:00] buses that the park offered to go from lookout point to lookout point. It was a beautifully clear day and so we thought, you know, the sunset had to be spectacular. And there was probably a place considered the best spot to see a spectacular sunset in a canyon.
And of course, one of the guides we talked to knew exactly where we needed to go and when we needed to get there.
The guide also told us that this was a popular place to gather, so we should get there a little early to have a good view. So , we did. We arrived a little early to find a spot to get ourselves a bit of canyon real estate that evening in order to get a beautiful and unobstructed view.
We weren't the only ones who arrived early that evening. As the sun dipped lower towards the Canyon Horizon, most folks found a place to sit.
And we all began to wait. And you know, we did what most people do. We chatted with our neighbors. Now in that dusky [00:05:00] evening, there was something almost sacred about the atmosphere as we prepared to watch the sun say goodbye to that day that we shared in our collective vacations. And people were strangely library quiet.
We spoke, but we all spoke quietly and we shared with fellow sunset watchers who we were, where we were from, what we did when we weren't vacationers. And we talked about the sites we'd seen that day. We were a peaceful community blended together solely for the purpose of watching this sun that we all shared as one world, one planet.
To watch this sun set into the Grand Canyon and the people were from everywhere, from all over the United States and all over the world. And as Tom and I sat and sipped on the drinks we brought, we listened to the quiet chatter around us and I heard languages from [00:06:00] everywhere. Languages that I knew and could name and languages that I wasn't real sure what their origin was.
We all sat. All of us sat in compatible solace, waiting in reverence for an experience that we knew was going to be unforgettable. In that hour that we spent waiting and watching for the sun to set in the Grand Canyon, I felt a quiet unity with all the people who gathered with us that evening. We were all there to see the sunset, And we were a full spectrum of different ages, genders, races, identities, and a spectrum of things that run deeper than appearance.
You know, like opinions, politics, religion. That evening, it didn't matter age, gender, where someone lived, or the language they spoke. It didn't matter how different we were. We sat together in union for over an hour. We embraced the [00:07:00] spectrum of full color that we brought to our community.
To the edge of the canyon that evening. We didn't build walls or shy away from people that looked or seemed different. We sat elbow to elbow, sharing the same view, sharing the same awe of the splendor the world was premiering for us to enjoy that evening. I was greatly moved by this experience and I think of it often when I feel the tension that we have in our country and in our whole world.
So much of what we push back against. is a fear of things that are different from the way we were taught as children or the spot in the world that we call home.
we are often fearful of being around or mixing ourselves into ideas that aren't a match to who we think we are or placesthat we don't know or haven't experienced yet.
And so today, because you know I love a good metaphor, we're going to focus our creativity.[00:08:00]
on unity and the meaning of full color through the lens of sunset at the Grand Canyon and the compatibility that the color wheel provides. I wonder, can our world Live harmoniously like the color wheel. Or like the folks waiting for the sun to set in the Grand Canyon?
So let's take another look at the color wheel.
The color wheel embraces a spectrum of every hue imaginable. All colors are different, and each plays an important role contributing to the brilliance of the whole.
And as humans, we also have a beauty in our diversity, but
we often gravitate towards what we feel is familiar. We seek out those who share our thoughts, our values, our backgrounds, and we tend to create walls that enclose [00:09:00] everyone that thinks like us.
Together, and separates us from others who might think differently. What would happen if the color wheel operated in this same way? What if the color wheel consisted only of a single shade of color that thought the same? That only varied slightly in this same way? My friend, our world as we see it would be like the black and white televisions of yesteryear.
Monochromatic. Shades of one color. In a monochromatic world, the richness of the spectrum of full color would be lost. Without the diversity and variety of color, our lives would lack richness and energy and vibrance. So embracing diversity, that means inviting all the colors of the world into our lives, even those that may initially seem foreign or [00:10:00] challenging.
Each hue and each voice adds some sort of additional depth and beauty to the canvas. the color wheel relies on each shade to create its overall brilliance. And this brilliance can only be accomplished if every shade is used and every shade is appreciated.
This creates harmony with all the colors, even those that are placed as opposites. inside the wheel. Now red and green, those are opposites on the color wheel. They set exactly opposed to each other on the color wheel. These opposite colors are called complementary colors. Because they're opposite on the color wheel, they have nothing in common.
But these complementary colors, although they are opposite, they complement each other. So when they are placed side by side, they create This special energy [00:11:00] that brings the pop of color that is so important to home decor. And my friend, think about it. What would Christmas be without red and green together?
Imagine if we as a wheel of people could begin to embrace the diversity of experiences and the variety of beliefs and colors that are opposite from our place on earth. Now I know that this is a Pollyanna view of the world, What if everyone was nice and polite to everyone all the time? I realize that this is a pipe dream.
There are people who are difficult to embrace. Who have done things that are not complementary to the human spectrum. And there are ideologies that should not be held up for praise. The way humans seem to be built, we can't take away the evil in the world.
Oh, here's what I know. I know that a majority of people hold a place of goodness in their hearts. So what [00:12:00] if these good people in the world could all try to embrace the unity of the color wheel just a little more?
Imagine if we could find strength and compatibility from people who might be our opposites. We might find ways to bring a pop of color into the world by sitting side by side with our complementary people. So, who is your complementary person? I've thought about this. And I've chosen mine. And I know that I'm going to have to work very, very hard to find that pop of color that will bring some good energy to the room when I am side by side with my complementary person.
But because we've talked about this today, I'm going to try.
because if we could all live in full color. We will not only enrich the lives of others, [00:13:00] but we'll also illuminate new clarity into our own lives.
And that will spread like butterfly ripples. into the world. So don't you think now might be a good time to ponder this metaphor and think about Our little place in the wheel of this world? Are we embracing the colors around us?
Are we complementing the colors that are opposite of who we are and what we think? What if we all worked just a little harder to achieve a little more balance with color in our world? It might just create a little more unity with us and to those folks who are our opposites.
Full color is what we love. It's what we spend countless hours blending into our lives, in our clothing, in the way we celebrate, in the way we communicate. What if we turned about and blended full color into the world? to [00:14:00] make it just a little brighter through how we look at other people.
And if And if embracing full color, like the color wheel seems just a dream, this is where creativity lets us enter into that what if world of poets and painters. It lets us share our dreams with people who need our art, our music, our books, our poems, our thoughts that are translated into the creative work that we do best. Creativity lets us see life through the sparkly facets that is forged by the full color creative passions.
We have as a diverse spectrum of humans, it lets us see, learn, and live better. Creativity helps us feel stronger and become more in tune with our world [00:01:00] in heart, mind, body, and soul. So is living in full color, just a dreamy idea? Well, I think if we worked at it, we could definitely see at least more color in our lives and in our world.
I know living in full color can be done, at least for an hour, because I've seen it happen at sunset in the Grand Canyon. Until next time, stay colorful, stay complimentary, stay creative, my friend.
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