Come April I’ll be joining others in the annual Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge that invites bloggers to write their way through the alphabet. Given my penchant for abecedariums, I find it impossible to resist. This will be my be my ninth year playing. I confess, I thought long and hard about whether I’d participate this year or not. Somehow this feels like it’s going to be a far greater challenge than it’s been in the past, particularly since I’ve allowed my blog to languish quite a bit this past year. I certainly want to be careful not to talk myself into something, so I won’t focus on potential difficulties. We’ll just see how it all unfolds.
In any case, today’s post is the “reveal” of what I’ll be spending April writing about.
I’ve been absolutely obsessed with color of late, and it feels like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole thinking about it in all manner of ways. I’ve been theorizing that as humans evolve one of the things we’ll be developing (or perhaps bringing “back online” something we once may have had access to) is a wider range of senses. One of the things I’m imagining is all sorts of blending – a sort of grand synesthesia overlapping all the senses, resulting in an exponential number of new ways in which to perceive and interact with our world. Synesthesia is defined as “an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality. Synesthetes hear colors, feel sounds and taste shapes.”
Whether that is literally in our future or not, there are some curious things about color that have always been true, and I find fascinating. First, there’s no way to know any of us sees the same thing when we look at a color. Is the red I see the same red you see? It’s not really something most people wonder about, but I do. Then there is the truth that there exist colors on spectrums that are outside of the capacity of human eyes to recognize. We know of ultraviolet and infrared spectrums and that’s really interesting in itself, but who knows, perhaps there are even more we have no clue about. Isn’t that fun to imagine? So here I am, thinking we don’t actually see the same things, and knowing there are things we don’t actually see at all. How strange and wonderful is that?!
Somewhere in my exploration of color, I’ve come across some lists of obscure color names and that’s what I’ll be basing my posts on (along with other unusual or simply delightful-to-me color names).
While I’ll share the colors, it’s not really the colors per se that I’m planning on writing about. Rather, I suspect my posts will be my usual free association writing about what that particular color brings to mind in the moment. Think of it as a sort of peek into the rainbow brainwaves emanating from my head.
While I’m meandering through the alphabet rambling about this or that thing a color has reminded me of, perhaps you’ll find you’re noticing colors more and finding yourself curious about them.
It would delight me even more if you were able to adopt the perspective of Jonas Merkas who wrote the following: “In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life.”
Doesn’t that sound exactly like what the world needs more of?
I hope you’ll consider playing in the challenge too. I always look forward to reading my way through the alphabet on an endless variety of topics via a myriad of bloggers. There can never be enough abecedariums in my opinion.
“It’s not really something most people wonder about, but I do. ” ME, TOO!
The Lyman Allen Museum in New London, CT has/had an exhibit on color recently. It’s small but fascinating (to me).
That sounds great Beth – I bet I’d enjoy it.
I’m glad you’ll be playing in the challenge again this year.
Delightful!
I look forward to a colorful month. 🙂
Perfect!
Definitely plan on following you. I always enjoy colorful writing.
I’m looking forward to your posts as well. Here’s to a delightful April.
What a fun theme! Looking forward to learning something new as I always do from you!
Thanks Janet. I have no doubt we;ll be enjoying the challenge again this year.
Hari OM
I am not undertaking the A-Z this year, but I certainly look forward to reading yours! As one who invites colour to stay around me in as many shades as possible, it will be fascinating to watch yours unfold. YAM xx
Thanks Yamini. And yay to life (and a world) saturated in color.
Deborah, great to see you again!
To be honest I am not sure if I understand what your posts will be about, so I guess I’ll just have to drop in and learn!
One thing that comes to my mind though… A few years ago there was “the dress” people were obsessing about. Was it white and gold or blue and brown? Remember?
Oh, I do remember the dress – people were crazy adamant about their opinions. How funny.
To put it more simply what I’m doing for the challenge is choosing 26 colors – most of them with obscure/obsolete names. Then I’m simply going to write about whatever comes to mind when I think about that color. My usual free-association stream-of-consciousness writing. Which is probably what caused your in the first place. 🙂
What a great topic! I’ve encountered exercises that play with color and words — I’m always a bit surprised at how starting with a color will often lead me to a profound thought that wouldn’t have occurred to me, otherwise.
I’m with you on that Joy. Colors seem like profound triggers to me. But the mechanism is entirely different than with scent with can evoke memories. The brain, our minds, and all the wasy we navigate in this world is utterly fascinating to me.
I’m looking forward to learning more about senses, especially colours. After all, it’s going to increase my appreciation of the world around me and hopefully filter through to my writing. I’m back on the challenge too as I love the thrill every morning of posting, reading other posts and getting feedback on my own writing. I only do it in April as for me, the effort is unsustainable for the rest of the year.
I love April as well Linda – there’s a delicious edge of anticipation and stretching and learning and appreciating all kinds of new things. How does it get better than that?
Colors–perfect! I’m intrigued by us not seeing them the same way but it makes sense. When I look at the connections between people’s favorite colors and those they choose for their homes and sanctuaries, I know that we interpret color in a multitude of ways. My older grandson loves bright orange. What does he associate with it? Joy, cantaloupe (one of his favorite fruits), the beauty of a sunrise or sunset? He doesn’t know but it makes me wonder.
It’s all fascinating isn’t it, Margaret?! And watching kid’s as they interact with color is delightful. I wish there were little windows in their foreheads so we could peek in and see what was going on.
Glad to see you’ll be in the A to Z Challenge again. I look forward to your posts on color(s) and what they evoke in us. I am always intrigued with the cycle of trendy new names for colors that have been around forever — in nature, print, fashion, online, everywhere — and also by the different energies colors bring. Look forward to your posts. See you in April!
That piece is interesting to me as well Molly. To see how limitations moved from what was readily available in the environment to the expansiveness of what we create now is amazing. Name generating for colors is amusing. It can be really amusing if someone witty has a go at it, but other times I just don’t know.
So glad you decided to do the challenge after all – wouldn’t be the same without you! and Colours! As a sometime painter and graphic artist I look forward to your riffing around the rainbow…
Thanks Andrew. I’m glad I decided to – it really is such fun!
This sounds very interesting.
Thanks. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how April unfolds.
Your theme sounds interesting and colorful. See ya soon!
Thanks. The challenge is always such fun, and I feel like a sponge soaking up such a variety of interesting things as I visit other players.
Oooh… Color! I love it! (Says someone whose blog is called “Black and White.” Ha!) You and I always have a lot of overlap in the things we get curious about and find delightful, so I definitely look forward to seeing where the rainbow takes you this year.
Relief Printed Alphabet Squared
Thanks Anne, and I’m always delighted by those kindred curiosities too. Let the April fun begin.
Is your red the same as my red? That is an interesting observation. Do you see exactly the same red cardinal that I do? Birds, additionally (just to add another complication to this discussion), see in wider spectrums than humans (for example, they can see in UV) plus, apparently, they can see slight differences in a color, say red, than we humans can. So does a red cardinal look different to them than to us? Do they see markings on their fellow birds that we can’t detect? Your theme has a lot of possibility.
I find the world endlessly fascinating with so much to be curious about.
Sounds like an interesting theme. I look forward to reading about it!
Thanks John. I’m really looking forward to April.
Another lovely theme! I hope you’ll stick with it, I can’t wait to read all you have to say 🙂 We are in sync again, I am just preparing for a color-themed storytelling event 🙂
Welcome back!
The Multicolored Diary
Thanks for your kind words and encouragement. And how utterly fabulous – a color-themed storytelling event! What fun.
Sounds really interesting. I am looking forward to seeing what you post all month.
The Other Side | Blogging A to Z Theme Reveal: Doctor Who
Thanks. I’m looking forward to your posts as well.
This does sound very exciting.
It was a very long time ago that I had the thought “is the blue I see the same as the thing you label as blue”. I suppose because my brother is colourblind and doesn’t distinguish between red and green and sometimes asks me what colour something is, it gave me the idea to think about it.
I then took this one step further and asked the question “what if the world is really going in and out all the time”. I concluded that because we see it as going in and out constantly and we’re in tune with it and going in and out too nobody notices.
Just weird I know.
Thanks for visiting my theme reveal 🙂
I love your question Jemima. And it’s exactly the kind of thing I ponder too, so no judgment about its weirdness. 🙂
Hi Deborah – looking forward to your entries … it’ll be fun – cheers Hilary
Thanks, Hilary!