An online game that I sometimes play displays a "color word" (e.g., black, blue, red, yellow) and a colored shape (e.g., a blue or red circle; a yellow or black square; a red or yellow triangle). The task is to decide if the word and the shape's color match. You are trying to score as many correct answers as you can in a short amount of time. Every time you play you are trying to improve your previous score. Simple, right?
There is a trick in the game, though: the color of the word may match the shape's color, but the word actually may spell out a different color.
Example: the word may be BLACK but it is colored as blue, and the shape may be blue. This is NOT a match.... because the color word says BLACK.
It's amazing what our minds see and how we react!
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| What do you see? (Photo credit: festival honoring the Greek god Dionysus, Paris 2024 Olympics - MSNBC) |
You may have watched the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics or have heard some of the commentary following. What amazes me is how quickly we form opinions, come to conclusions, judge, and become outraged by something we dislike... or don't understand.
Lady Gaga and the Moulin Rouge Can Can Dancers were some of the entertainers along the 3-plus mile route the Olympic athletes took along the Seine River. No outrage or negative comments.
One tableau paid homage to the early Greek Olympics: it was a scene of an Olympic festival honoring the god Dionysus. Some people saw this scene as a mockery of DaVinci's iconic "The Last Supper."
Our minds see what is familiar to us... and how quickly we react!
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| How do we interpret what is unfamiliar to us? (Photo: Elizabeth Peratrovich and Totem Pole, Juneau - Larry Gardepie) |
I have been to Juneau several times over the years. In a recent visit, I noticed a new set of totem poles along the waterway and a portrait of a young indigenous woman. Totem poles tell stories - reading from the bottom up. The stories of older totem poles are sometimes lost when the elders die. Looking at these newer poles, I can revel at their beauty and craftsmanship... but I don't know what they are saying.
And, what was the story behind this woman's portrait? I did a little research and found out that her name was Elizabeth Peratrovich, a woman of the local Tlingit peoples. In 1941, she saw a sign in a Juneau hotel that read "No Natives Allowed." She is honored as the first Alaskan civil rights activist who helped people see the harm in excluding others because of their skin, background... and stories.
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| How many stories are untold? (Photo: Gitwilgyoots Tribe panel, Prince Rupert - Larry Gardepie) |
Exploring Prince Rupert, we came across an exhibit of wall panels from the native tribal houses. The panels have similarities -- but are quite different when you spend time looking at the details of each panel. The local peoples have different stories. I realized as I stood in front of each panel that I could marvel at the beauty and design, but there was so much I didn't know: I didn't know the stories; I could not identify.
There is so much we don't know about ourselves and others! Our mistake is that we have forgotten some of our stories... or, in the case of people from other countries and cultures, we don't know their stories.
Maybe it's time to... (How would you finish this sentence?)
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| Larry Gardepie (click on link for website) |
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