It was August of
1992, and our local National Guard unit had been mobilized to assist the
citizens of Dade County. As a result of Andrew, a Category five level
hurricane, thousands of dwellings and businesses were savagely demolished.
In a
newspaper article I wrote later, I refer to the utter lack of color which met
my eye wherever I turned. Every building, and I mean every building, for twenty
miles in any direction displayed some degree of damage, and a majority were
reduced to little more than rubble. And oddly enough, something that is foreign
to us in Florida, every tree and every bush was completely stripped of their
leaves and flowers.
During the
forty days I served in Miami, I began to experience an unusual amount of
fatigue, and after our unit was deactivated, three weeks elapsed before I felt
like my old self.
It was only
later that it occurred to me that much of the apparent tiredness and lack of
energy was the result of sensory deprivation, since during those dawn to dusk
days in Homestead, Florida my vision was limited to white, black and gray, and
an almost total lack of the color green.
As human
beings, we are meant to see in color. Having ever viewed the world in color,
our brains are not equipped to experience life in black and white.
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending
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