The blues

I think people are like colours. I don’t mean their personalities, like a firey red temper or a glowing yellow disposition. I mean how people interact. Your eyes contain cones for seeing colour, but it turns out you have a lot more cones for seeing some colours than others. That’s why red always stands out, and blue doesn’t. In fact, if you fixate on a blue object for long enough, it’ll start to fade into the background. Just like people.

Try it. Go to a party and just watch. The red people will stand out to you right away, that’s what they do. Then you’ll notice the yellows, greens, and purples–they’re the ones that are socializing without drawing their own crowds.

The hard ones to spot are the blues. You have to look carefully. It’s like trying to see what you can’t see, or at least what you’ve been trained to ignore. They may be the hardest to find, but I think the blues are the most interesting. Even though it seems like they’re hiding, they’re usually the ones who have the least to hide. The reds and the yellows are hiding in plain sight, like a benign frog with flashy colours hoping to thwart predators that will mistake it as poisonous. But the blues have no motive to masquerade. Besides, who would want to be the person sitting alone at a party? Blues act the way they do, not because they’re trying to hide who they are, but because they can’t help who they are.