Show off your true colours

One of the few ways we could get to experience a world without our accustomed range of colours, would be to watch a ‘black and white’ film from the early days of the film industry.

It is an almost surreal experience because of the vast departure from our reality of a world which abounds with colours of all shades.

The world of nature is sublime in its provision of unsurpassable beauty and variety, and colours that almost defy adequate description.

The animal and plant worlds produce and display breathtaking magnificence. The skies, encompassing sunrises, sunsets and rainbows, seldom fail to enthral and provide immeasurable pleasure to vast numbers of observers and devotees.

Even mankind has tapped into the universal appeal of colours and their variety to enhance our vehicles, buildings and most other products. We are privileged beyond measure on this wonderful planet, and should do everything possible to preserve and conserve what we have.

But there is more than the incredible face value of colours that extends to Man’s harnessing of its essence to apply to people, their personalities and actions.

There is a powerful school of thought that believes that we all fit into certain colours or shades/combinations thereof that determine much about whom we are. Many contend that the masks of pretence which characterise a lot of our actions and verbal interactions, get dramatically removed when we show our true colours. As is to be expected, literature abounds with quotes and songs that relate to people and their colours.

The song True Colors by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, made famous by Cyndi Lauper, conveys strong advice to people to be whom they are and not to suppress their personalities behind masks of pretence. An excerpt follows:

“I see your true colors

And that’s why I love you So don’t be afraid to let them show

Your true colors, your true colors

Are beautiful like a rainbow ” . A meaningful observation on the disguising and potentially damaging effects on the behaviour of people is reflected in Chris Jami’s “Healology”, when bottled-up anger can explode to produce responses that are dangerously foreign to one’s ‘true colours’.

Further views that illustrate the nature of Man’s behaviour, and how it is affected by circumstances to the extent that some may be labelled chameleons of a sort, are reflected in Josephine Humphreys’ observation (“Fireman’s Fair”) that when people say they are happy for us, may often mean they are sad for themselves.

Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann’s contention that friends show their true colours in times of need and not in times of happiness.

Given the situation that South Africa finds itself in during these exceptionally trying times, there should be a clarion call for leaders whose colours are dominated by strength and integrity to emerge from the morass that is our political reality.

Shaun Achor echoes this in his claim that the best leaders are those who show their true colours during times of struggle, and not during the comfortable years.

It would be a foolish person who, once having shown his true colours, were to revert to actions and interactions that were characteristic of his ‘pretend’ self. Matshona Dhliwayo maintains that it is impossible to ‘paint over them’.

Can anything be more significant in our lives than the colours of nature on an aesthetic level, and the colours portrayed in actions by us, our family, friends and leaders?