Why Does An Orange Need To Be Orange.

It’s a strange question, I will give you that. Why does an orange have to be orange? What came first? The name or the color?

I’ve been partially color-blind my whole life and I sometimes joke with close friends and family that the way they see things is wrong and I am actually the one who is correct. After all, the only reason they see it one way and I see it another way is the rods and cones in their eyes function differently than those that are in my eyes, so the signals that are sent to their brains are different than those I see. As a result, their brains perceive color differently than I do. Just because they are the majority and see things in one way, doesn’t truly mean that it’s the correct way, does it?

Thinking differently comes from many places. You can say people are wired differently. You can attribute it to educational patterns. It can be environmental. It can be all of these things. Once again I pose the question - just because the majority of people think one way and a few people think differently, is one group right and the other one wrong?

You can tease me or you can chuckle and say this sort of existential question is silly, or too like “The Matrix”. That’s fine. It doesn’t bother me very much. Ultimately it’s all about what we do with the situation and the way the data and observations are presented to us.

Speaking of “The Matrix”, did you know Keanu Reeves is colorblind? So is Bill Clinton. Mark Zuckerberg is colorblind. Even Christoper Nolan, the director of such films as “Inception” and “The Dark Knight”, “Tenet” and more recently, “Oppenheimer”, is colorblind. In the world of directors, I think it is safe to say that Christopher Nolan is considered a brilliant light, and he most certainly thinks differently than other people. His films are mind-bending, reality-twisting works of art. He approaches his craft differently and he is well-regarded for that fact. Is it because he is color-blind? Maybe that is just a happy coincidence.

So back to the original question… why does an Orange have to be Orange? Who decided that one?

Well, funny enough, there is an actual answer.

Prior to the fruit we know as an orange was introduced to the english-speaking world, the color was referred to as “yellow-red” (quite original). The word dates back to the 13th century and according to wikipedia, the actual first application of the word for the color is from 1502 and one Margaret Tudor. She coined the term, stealing it from the edible citrus and applying it to clothing. Mary is who we have to credit with the use of the word, changing from “Yellow Red” to Orange. Up until her decision, Orange was considered a by product, and not something that required attention with its own name. Here’s something to think about - what if Mary was colorblind? I know woman are rarely, if ever, colorblind, but just imagine for a moment that she called it what she called, but the whole time she say it differently. What are the implications that one?

Seems awfully arbitrary. It could have easily been someone who called an Orange a Violet, and things would have been different.

We assign meaning to things we see in order to help tell a story, and guide an audience in one direction or another. In that manner, assigning a name to a color is indeed arbitrary, but know that if people accept it as truth, and continue to perpetuate it, it becomes de facto truth and you have now changed the world.

So in closing, what am I trying to say?

Never simply take anything for granted. Feel free to question the standards. Feel free to look at things from a different point of view. just because everyone else says “that’s the way it is” doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be.

photo accompanying this post is courtesy of UnSplash