I brought my son to the eye doctor the other day. This was a follow up appointment. He wanted glasses so badly the last time around that he tried to sabotage his exam. We were on to him when he actually spelled out his sister’s name as he read the eye chart. Crazy kid!
So the eye doctor had us come a month later to just confirm what she already knew…that he definitely didn’t need glasses.
As we were sitting in the exam room, however, she casually informed us, “Your son’s vision is fine. He doesn’t need glasses, but you should know that your son is color impaired.” Say what? You mean color blind? She wanted to know if anyone else in my family had ever been diagnosed with color blindness. In fact, my brother and Uncle are, so I guess there is a gene that runs rampant in the female members of our family. My son inherited this, and apparently, it’s the females that hand down the gene.
All was fine and good until the doctor continued. “Color blindness really doesn’t really effect your life, but you should know that you’ll never bee a policeman or a fireman.” Boom! A bomb dropped right on top my my innocent little 7-year-old. He gave an instant frown. “But I want to go to the police academy,” he said. Seriously…did she really need to crush the dreams of a kid who views policeman and fireman as big as heroes as Superman or Spiderman? Was it really necessary to break that news to him now? I think, doctor lady, that it wouldn’t have harmed anyone if you withheld the information until he was a bit older.
Whatever….my son lives in a color blind world, and I am a bit sad that he doesn’t see all the vibrant colors that sometimes takes my breath away. He doesn’t seem to mind, because I guess he just knows what he knows. And by the way, Ms. Eye Doctor, there are color blind people who do go on to become police men or firemen. So please…get your preconceived ideas and unfriendly bedside manner away from my kid. He can be anything he aspires to be in full technicolor.
My song of the day is from the TV show Glee. Check out Mercedes (played by Amber Riley) singing a beautiful original song that she wrote. Her “Colorblind” is gorgeous. Check it out, and remember…music will always have all the colors of the rainbow. Even if you can’t see all the colors, music helps you feel it.
