As we walked….
He took me to the town square. It was early so the square was empty. We sat on a bench perched on the side of a knoll that overlooked the square. It wasn’t long before two men walked into the square. They both wore brightly colored clothing. Simultaneously, they both started taking to each other. As I watched, I made an observation – they were both talking but neither was listening to the other. I turned towards him, wishing for an explanation but he seemed lost in his thoughts so I stayed silent.
Gradually more men in brightly colored clothing streamed into the square and like the first two men, they also started talking. Each man seemed to direct his speech to all but no one seemed to listen to another. By now, the voices had reached a din and I could make words out. Surprisingly, all I heard were words like “black”, “white”, “red”, “brown” and “yellow”. All I heard were descriptions of color! I strained to listen closer and over and over, all I heard were the names of colors.
Baffled, I turned to him again. His eyes were on me with a wistful smile on his face. Before I could utter a word, he said:
“All they do is speak. No one listens to the other so all they see is each others color.”