You Cannot Impart Wisdom to Those Seeking It!

There is futility in trying to teach someone something you have come to understand through direct experience while the person with whom you are working has yet to do so. Wisdom does not come easily or lightly!

Last night in my dream, I tossed and turned for what felt like the entire evening, trying to teach some bored, uninvolved teenager the meaning of color and its many uses.

For example adding various colored tabs, by category, to filed items make it easier to recognize and retrieve them. Colors on file folders, or drawers, or even the items themselves create a visual link to a cognitive one.

We tried to discuss the concept of “what I see as green is not necessarily what you see as green.”

Also, the word green in and of itself means nothing unless most people we are involved agree to the same or similar color being called “green.” By example, if a red apple is called “Blue” and we all agree, when we see a red fruit, we will call it “Blue.” 

Color can give us cues to our environment. Fall colors are different than winter or summer colors. Some colors can help us be calm (like blue) and others can get us going (like red.) Pink on men is usually associated with homosexuality and black often is associated with death and/or grief.

All this still makes sense to me, but the teenager couldn’t understand or care about the knowledge I was trying to impart. Until he has experienced the concept himself, he cannot just accept it on my word. For that matter, until he has experienced the concept, we cannot really talk about or share it. Also, try keeping a teenager interested at the same time!