Unless you’ve been living under a rock and ignore all forms of social media, you have likely seen a post asking what colors are in this dress over the last few days…
And as with all things internet related, chaos has ensued.
I saw this in my friend Evin’s Facebook feed originally. The first time I saw it, I saw cream and gold… the next time, powdery blue and gold… the next time, blue and black… the next time, blue and an ugly goldish green…
I asked my kids what they saw. Giant immediately saw black and blue. Mini saw blue and “and ugly greenish gold color.”
Across the book of face, people started to get downright assholeish about the colors… started talking about how (a) the whole thing was stupid and anyone engaging in the discussion was an idiot (b) how anyone who couldn’t see the colors the same as them was wrong and an idiot (c) the science behind it or (d) photographers dissecting the quality of the photo… and of course so many more thoughts and opinions that I can’t even begin to sum up in one blog post.
Here’s the thing. I both care and don’t care what you see… let me explain.
I CARE about what you see in this post because I care about your views on all things – whether the colors seen in the dress above or your views on a situation. How you see the world matters to me. In fact, the whole dress-gate is metaphorical for almost everything wrong with the world – I see Black and Blue so anyone who doesn’t must be wrong!
I’m disappointed in my normally tolerant friends who are resorting to name calling and getting their feelings hurt because someone couldn’t accept that their view was somehow different.
I DON’T CARE what you see only from the standpoint of this. You are right. Whatever you see is absolutely correct. I accept you for where you are and what you see – in the dress and life – without judgement. We don’t have to agree – on the dress or more important life choices – for me to respect that your view is correct based on where you are.
If you are really curious about why the views are different, there’s some science behind why the colors appear different to different people, but for me, it reminded me of ski trips when I was little. When I was little, I would wear goggles to protect my eyes from the harsh sun rays bouncing off the snow. (Now I just wear my shades) Those goggles were almost always a yellow tint and after a day of the slopes, when the goggles were removed, everything was blue. EVERYTHING. But just because I saw blue snow didn’t mean that I had somehow transported to smurf-land or that the snow was in fact blue… it was just how I saw it. The science behind it was fascinating and yet even understanding the reasoning behind it didn’t make it any less magical to me.
Sometimes in life we see things differently than the person next to us… different than our kids… different than our loved ones. Instead of assuming that everyone different from us is wrong, why not embrace the differences and try to see things from someone else’s view. You might just learn something about the other person. You might start to see a situation from a different perspective. You might just be a little more *gasp* tolerant…
I wrote about this today too because I guess I am a weirdo. I see both color combinations depending on the picture.
But I missed all the drama because I was on the road. It’s bad enough when people name call and demean each other over subjects that matter. How did fights develop over a dress? Ridiculous!
BTW, in this pic, it looks white and gold to me but like I said I’ve seen it as blue and black, too.
<3
Traci
That is too funny – I see it as Blue/Black in this picture but it’s our differences that make our friendship worthwhile 🙂
I love you from the tips of my toes to the farthest outreaches of the universe.