red

I think that one of the great mysteries of life is the question "Do you see the same color orange that I do?" How can we ever know that what appears orange through my eyes isn't what I'd call green through your eyes? But since we both point at the same thing and nod in agreement while we say "orange," we are comforted in the naming.

Think of how much deeper a problem this poses. We now have the illusion that we mean the same thing with our shared word, but I see something that I don't like and you see something that you do. Maybe it's not just because you like orange and I don't; perhaps it's that we are fundamentally seeing different colors. We are experiencing different senses, although we know that we both mean the same physical object or trait at which we're both pointing, now shouting a little in frustration.

I'm sorry, I just don't like orange.

It goes beyond the simplicity of color. There is so much visual, auditory, physical, odorous data, every moment in time across a wide world. With a practically infinite variability, how can I really understand the same orange poppy on a rolling hill in Palo Alto as you? How can you understand the same rust on a bolt barring windows at Dammasch as me?

We've developed language to try to communicate these things, but perhaps the endeavor is entirely futile because we are not even experiencing the same senses. Maybe that is the reason why this isn't working.

music & motions

Sometimes listening to music, I can see the lyrics in feelings while physically feeling the melody in a rush like lying in an inner tube in a river. Is this a false synethsesia? It can be overwhelming the in the car, and I wake up when I get there. The bands whose music causes this most seem to be the Verve, Youth Group, Elbow, and some Ryan Adams.

It's a beautiful escape.