Some thoughts on all things blue.

I have a vivid memory sitting outside in the dusk contemplating my mortality after my older brother explained the possibility that his spectrum of colors differs from mine.

I can't remember my exact age but I must have been in middle school.  My brother and I shared many summer nights fishing alone while we watched our Ugly Stik rods flutter in the North Carolina coastal winds. We rarely caught fish out on the pier but I found myself enjoying the quiet downtime as much as the action.

Our conversations followed no discernible pattern, touching on anything and everything.. Inevitably, as I looked out into the ocean I would drift into thoughts about existentialism or even my own mortality. At my young age, I referred to them as 'trippy thoughts'.  One minute we would discuss how Pat Listache's career spiraled into mediocrity after winning the 1992 NL Rookie of the Year award and the next we would quarrel with the idea that my brother's perception of the color green could be my purple and his orange could be my blue. I can imagine now some the examples he used to walk me through this particular idea. Tom, look at this bluefish you just caught. Is it blue or is it green? Someone a long time ago decreed it had no defining qualities other than it's overwhelming blueness. Is it blue to you?

Funny, last night's Mad Men episode "The Color Blue" centered on that color metaphor for the episode's theme: How do I know that what you see as the color blue is the same thing that I see? While I watched the show on my absolutely positively blue couch, my mind instantly traveled back to those old conversations on the wooden benches at Ocean Crest Pier. Needless to say this phenomena applies to other things and not exclusively to the color spectrum.  Even though we look at the same events, situation and objects, our minds will perceive them differently.  North Carolinians, go grab a bottle of Duck Rabbit milk stout, look at the label, and ask yourself: is it a duck or is it a rabbit? The answer is of course, who cares, it's delicious.

In sports, we attach poetic meaning to what we see and craft story lines to explain our perceptions.  In case you haven't been paying attention recently, Alex Rodriguez has hit a few homers this postseason at critical moments. To some, that means the former clutch coward has finally transformed himself into the clutch king by staying calm and simplifying the process.  To others (sabermetricians), nothing's changed at all; he's the beast he always was but you know, funny things happen in small sample sizes.  These two perceptions conflict with each other.  Is it a duck or is it a rabbit?

Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is reportedly on the hot seat after beginning this season winless in the team's first six games.  If you remember, just last year the Titans won more regular season games than any other team in football and Fisher was crowned as a football genius. If you're keeping count at home, he's 13-9 in the last two regular seasons. I ask again: is it a duck or is it a rabbit?

Over in the NBA, Kevin Durant is already one of the league's most prolific scorers and just last month he turned 21.  With his scoring ability, youth, and frame, he's destined to be one of the all-time greats. Well, what if I told you that even though he may drop 30 points a game with the big boys, his team is better off without him? Is it a duck or is it a rabbit?

In the end, maybe it is possible that your blue isn't my blue and Durant isn't all he's cracked up to be. These discords shouldn't scare us.  If anything, they should spark more rational thought and encourage us to further evaluate what our eyes tell us.  Better yet, we can use our sensibility to create our own story lines.

Maybe the man who named the bluefish was just having a bad day and was feeling especially sad after he caught the helpless fish.  That story makes more sense to me. I never thought bluefish were all that blue.