Cure for Color Blindness

I'm color blind. Color deficient. Or as one of my teachers said in regards to my work coloring: "Doesn't follow directions well." Or as my wife often says: "Change those socks, they don't match."

I didn't find out I had a problem seeing color until my physical for college. They had to run a color test and I failed. I couldn't see anything in those damn dots. Suddenly it became clear to me why I had a hard time matching clothes and why I couldn't ever seem to pick out the purple crayon from the box. Some careers were closed to me. I couldn't be a policeman because I wouldn't be able to correctly identify the color of the getaway car. Graphic design....not a good idea. Electronics with their color coded wires proved to be a challenge and caused more than one mishap. Didn't seem to hamper me in becoming a Social Studies teacher other than those map assignments. Kids always figured out I had a problem when I would talk about the country colored red and it was really purple.

Occasionally I will wonder what the rest of the world sees when they look at a painting. How a garden looks different to me than to my wife. But really, I don't much think about it. Then I saw this article about the success scientists have had in generating color sight in color blind monkeys. They are so encouraged by the results that they are looking to obtain permission for human trials.

I find myself oddly elated that maybe, just maybe, I will get to see purple.


[image: "twenty six"; author: 2inches; March 7, 2006; http://www.flickr.com/photos/2inches/109466350/; [Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic]