Ever since the accident with my temporary blindness happened, I keep thinking of how lucky some of us are and I'm also observing how others are handling themselves in certain situations. It's easy to take everything for granted and we tend to do so, till one day when something bad happens. When we don't have it anymore, we realize the value of it, but it may be too late by then as certain things we lose for good, unfortunately.
Partial Dyschromatopsia
Last week I was chatting to an old friend of mine who I know since I was a little girl. I know he's living with a condition called partial dyschromatopsia. This may not be the exact medical term for the condition as I only know it in Romanian, but it's the closest I could got on the internet. Don't worry, I'm going to explain what it mans.
La dyschromatopsia is the alteration of color vision that causes partial color blindness. The most common form of dyschromatopsia is color blindness, condition in which a person may present partial blindness to the Red, green or azul and, therefore, it is difficult to correctly identify the more than 200 tones that the human eye can detect. source
All this may look too technical to you, so let me bring you some examples to understand better what I'm talking about.
There are different tests that you have to pass, when you need your eyes checked. I'm not talking about regular checks you do to see if you need glasses, but the color vision test you need, when you want to get your driving license or get it renewed for example. There are certain jobs where this test is required too.
Below I'm going to post a few Ishihara test plates you may need to read, when doing such a test, to establish if you can see colors or you're color blind.
I'm posting only two slides to give you an idea what it is like, but if you want to check your eyes, here's a link, where you can do a Color Blind Test. Have fun.
My Friend
My friend is not color blind. He can't distinguish between green and brown and he's also having problems identifying different color tones but he can see certain colors.
When he was at the age when children start drawing and coloring, he always made the trees backwards, with green bark and brown leaves. That was a sign that something was not right, but back then life was very different and as this thing was not life threatening, no one knew what it was and was not considered a big problem.
At that young age life wasn't too complicated for him. I know his sister helped him when it came to shopping and selecting clothes to wear, but other than that, he had no major problems.
I remember once we went for a trip and being summer, there was a heavy shower in the mountains, after which there was a gorgeous rainbow over the cliffs, that you only see in the movies. Imagine everyone took out their phones and started taking photos like there was no tomorrow. My friend was quiet and after listening to us praising the rainbow for 5 minutes, he suddenly said "the rainbow is a big cheat as there's only a yellow line and definitely not a bunch of colors as you say" 😂 This was quite funny, but shocking as well.
I took this photo last year, while visiting an old lady in another city. There was a shower in the afternoon and after that, nature gifted us with this gorgeous rainbow. I was more than happy because most of the times you only see half of it and I think it was the first time I saw semicircle. This was an absolute beauty, so I took as many shots as I could.
Here's a cropped photo of the right side, to show you what that rainbow looked like from closer. I don't know about you, but I can distinguish (from left to right) purple, blue, green, orange and red.
Now imagine seeing only yellow, while people say there are seven colors. Is it a tragedy? Not by far. It is a shame, but not a tragedy.
When Your Life Changes In A Split Second
My friend was diagnosed only when he applied to get his driving license when he failed the Ishihara test. That was the moment when he was given a diagnoses and had to realize this is a condition he has to live with for the rest of his life.
According to this website, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are affected by color blindness, so it's quite a common thing.
I've read scientist have made experiments on monkeys and got some good results but the process has not been tested on humans and who knows if it will ever give results on humans. So right now there's no treatment for this condition, you have to live with it for the rest of your life.
This is when you ask yourself: How? Imagine being told that you're different and you may not be able to do what others do because you have this condition. Your chances in life got reduced. In theory.
Mastering Life
Over the years I came to realize there are two types of people. There are those who are using their condition to make people feel sorry for them and also use it to make excuses. Some are living this way for the rest of their lives, truly believing there's nothing they can do as they have a condition. This may sound harsh, but it is true. Just look around and you'll find an example or two right away.
Others are looking for a solution to be able to cope with the situation and live a relatively normal life. Is it easy? Most likely not, but it's not impossible either. It depends on you if you want to be part of your own problem or contribute to find a solution that works.
My friend has a job that requires him to identify at least 4 or 5 colors every day. These are the basic colors among which there are those he can't really distinguish. His superiors, his doctor and his workmates know about his condition, it's not a secret and they also know they can trust him as he has never caused any problems.
To be the master of yourself is to fully understand who you are and take responsibility for your own life. source
I asked him how on earth is he able to identify those colors if he can't see them? He said to me, it doesn't matter how the color is called. You can name them daisy, sausage, cat, cucumber or violin, whatever you like, it doesn't matter. What matters is to be able to identify two identical ones. At this point I said he's a genius as it has never crossed my mind to think like that and I think it's safe to say neither have you. We're used to those names and we know which is which and that's all.
When you don't have that ability, you work out a system that works for you. He is able to see that one color is darker, the other is lighter and the third is even lighter and based on that, he can do the work he likes and he's good at it as well. I truly admire him, honestly. Finding a way to compensate what you don't have is an art.
Creating Your Own World
While having this discussion with him, I was thinking what if he would have inherited some artistic talent, like painting or drawing. His first reaction was I would do black and white. Imagine being talented at painting but not being able to identify the right colors or tones, or better said, seeing most of the tomes the same way.
We are used to leaves being green, the bark of the tree being brown, the sky is mostly blue, the water is mostly blue or green too and so on. These are the colors nature got us used to.
You already know I go to art exhibitions quite often, post about it as well and comment on what I see. Over the years I've seen a tone of artworks of all kinds, literally, in my country and abroad as well, from artists all over the world. We live in a modern era, where the sky doesn't have to be blue, the water can be any color you want it to be and standards are considered boring. However, I've never seen any artwork yet, from an artist that has a similar condition as my friend or is color blind. I know there are such artists out there, have seen them in TV, but have never seen any work from them in real life.
I truly hope one day I will have the pleasure and the possibility to visit such an exhibition, to see how these artists see the world. Would be a very cool experience.
This is just one story but how many are out there. How many people are living with certain conditions and/or disabilities and they can still make things work and do wonders.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
- Communities Explained - Newbie Guide
- Cross Posting And Reposting Explained, Using PeakD
- Hive Is Not For Me
- How To Pump Your Reputation Fast - Newbie Guide
- Tips And Tricks & Useful Hive Tools For Newbies
- Community List And Why It Is Important To Post In The Right Community
