(821) Genetic variation 3

I learned about colour blindness when I saw the test picture in my science book in my early teens. No, I was not red-green colour blind. One of my classmates was. But in his case, he still could barely discern between red and green.

Later I met my first colour blind friend in college. From biology I know that female colour blindness is statistically lower in the population. If she chose not to disclose that to me, I would never have guessed it. All her clothes were well matched. I have never caught her wearing one green and one red sock.

Then after my children went to an excellent art teacher for two years, she told me that she was legally colour blind. I was astounded. Of course once one is open to such possibilities, the exceptions to the rule are many. Recently I came across a professional artist who is colour blind too.

In my childhood days, my mum, my brothers and I could never agree on certain shades of colours. We would argue with each other about whether a T-shirt is blue or green. Later as our vocab increased, we could not decide that a colour is cyan, aquamarine or turquoise. All I know is that my father refused to make any comment on colours at all. And he loved me and would  pay special attention to me. For a chauvinistic old fashion Chinese man, he spent a disproportionately high percentage of his little free time educating a female child on the history, culture and significance of the Chinese civilisation.

With hind sight, I see that I was probably born without a natural ability to discern between blue-green colours at a glance. But somewhere in my childhood years of struggle, somehow I had overcome it to a certain extent. Right until today I would give way to my husband and children in terms of colours. I try not to laugh at any child or adult that picks up the wrong item because of the lack of colour discernment.