Blue

Peter has been blind from birth and I often wonder what his world is like. I am his best friend and at times I close my eyes when sitting beside him, and try to visualize what he is going through. It’s always black and shady as if darkness has fallen upon me. It’s actually very scary.

One day while relaxing on the beach by the sea,

Peter asks me, ‘Is the whole word dark the way I see it?’

‘No’, I tell him. ‘The sea that’s in front of us is blue in color’.

‘Everything is the same to me’, Peter says apologetically.

‘I am sorry’, I say.

‘So tell me what the colour blue is like?’ Peter asks me with enthusiasm.

Holding his hand, I lead Peter down to the water lapping at our feet. Not exactly knowing where this conversation is going to lead, I tell him,

‘Listen carefully to the waves rushing at us. Listen to how mighty they sound in the distance and how mild they sound when they wash over your feet. The entire sky is blue in color which makes the oceans and all other water bodies blue too’.

 I wondered if that made any sense to him. But he nodded his head as if he understood everything. I could see that he was straining every nerve in his body to hear the waves and he smiled every time the water washed over our feet.

After absorbing the feeling for a few minutes he tells me, ‘So if I am right, the color blue is a dominating one because it covers 70% of the Earth, I have heard, and the entire stretch of the sky, as you say. It’s also majestic to hear and pleasant to feel. Is that what blue is like?’

‘Yes, something like that’, I tell him and closing my eyes, I try to feel the pleasure, dominance and majesty of blue.