It is a delightful day. The sun
and the birds are plentiful.
The bird songs exquisite!
I can’t tell one bird from the
other. So that makes me a
bird listener as I could never
be a bird watcher. Fifty-four
years ago this month I was
in Vietnam. I had to take a
color vision test. You know
the one—each page has a big
circle and in each big circle
there are a bunch of small
circles. I was told that there
is a big number in each of
the big circles. I flipped
through all of them. No
numbers for me. Not a one.
I don’t know what you see,
but I do know it is different
than what I see. For the most
part, my life is devoid of color.
My life view is made up of light
and dark. Lighter or darker.
I guess I live in the shadows of
shades of gray where there is
an occasional flash of yellow or
green. A few years after we were
married we realized that we had
a color problem. She would point
to her thigh and say, “Do you see
that? See that red area. That is
where the pain is,” as she rubbed.
“Sorry, I don’t see a thing.”
The following week she’d ask me
to look in her eye, “You see that?
It really itches; you see the red.”
“Sorry, I don’t see a thing. I can’t
see red on black.”
So, I told her the same thing I am
telling you. I failed the color vision
test way back when she was five.
It was time for dinner and I couldn’t
resist, “So, you’re black? I married a
black woman? Why didn’t you tell me!”
I think she punched me in the arm.
Then laughed, “Once you’ve had black,
baby, there is no going back!”
I shook my head.
She asked, “So how do you see things?”
I answered, “My dear Mrs. Gray, I take
life one traffic light at a time.”