THE EXISTENTIAL REALITY: Coloured Glasses

"Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity"

P. B. Shelley

Decorating ancient buildings with coloured glasses is an art, and is also a delicacy to the eyes. Picturesque paintings and arrangement of glasses in the ancient Churches, Synagogues, theaters and worship places is a symbol of divine. They allow light in different colours to pass through which give a heavenly atmosphere. There is a long history for the genesis of coloured glasses and glass art which I do not want to comment on. What brings a wonder for me is the phenomenology of the coloured glass!

Glass is a surface, be it on a window panel or in any other shape, allows the ray of light to pass in and out. When the light passes through, it reflects the colour which the glass possesses. Deeper the colour of the glass, deeper is the colour of the light. If the glass surface is full of art and design, ditto will be the colour. Darker and opaque the glass, vague will be the light; thinner and transparent the glass, clearer and brighter the light.

Often in the glass cases we read the inscription, “Glass wares, handle with care!” Glass wares are delicate and can break easily. At the same time, they are very precious. If broken, difficult to put it in order, unless, they are processed again. However, if one processes, the original attire seldom can be attained.

Every human being is like a coloured glass. They are precious, valuable and unique. The values double when they reflect the colour which they possess. More opaque, darker is the colour; transparent the glass, clearer is the vision. Deeper the colour, harder the reflection; more transparency, better transparency is in the personality.

We human beings are multi-coloured glasses. We reflect coloured shades. Rather than reflecting back, we need to allow the light to enter in. While allowing the light to enter in, we need to allow the light to fall into different hues of our glassy personality. Then, the incoming shade will be more colourful. Once we allow different colours to enter in, the reality appearing within will be far more beautiful than otherwise.

Should we allow every light to enter in? I feel, no. We need to filter the light we are receiving. There are hundreds and thousands of rays we are bombarded at every moment. It is up to us, to allow which one is better for me and others to see and experience. There are glasses which block ultra-violet rays and glasses which block infrared and radio waves. Similarly, in our bodies too, there should be areas where such glasses are to be fitted to block such carcinogenic rays. For the healthy culture to shine within the theater of our selves healthy, well decorated, artistic and colourful glasses are essential. Only then, the picture exhibited within will be glorious.

There is an English idiom which goes like this, “Rose-coloured glasses” or “Rose-coloured spectacles” which means, “if someone thinks about or looks at something with rose-coloured glasses, they think it is more pleasant than it really is.” The farther meadow is always greener. It is nothing but masked personality. The reality in fact is fresh and beautiful, but the masked person is not able to perceive in its pristine clear state. The reality is attained only when one experiences it in one’s life. It is the case with most of the ‘white-collared people,’ who often make rules and regulations for others and they themselves do not have any realistic idea of it. The people wearing rose-coloured glasses often use flowery language, idiomatic expressions and claim to know things better than others. I call this kind of people, ‘over-enthusiasts.’

Some people artificially paint attractive colours on their self-glasses. And some people regret not being painted. What is more important to note here is, the frustration of not being the original paint. It is by divine providence that each and every individual is given with ample colours in life (say for example, the talents). However, they are not satisfied with these and therefore, try to paint artificial colours and end up with gloomy pictures. As the proverb goes, “face is the index of the mind,” they exhibit themselves their real inner picture. On the other hand, there are people who act what actually they are, but remain skeptic about their own beauty. And at times they shut their theater door so as not to allow anyone to enjoy the art. Are both extremes healthy? Nay. One should note that ‘to be authentic is to be natural.’ But at times, there may be some cracking and leaking areas which need immediate attention to.

There is a tendency in some people to ‘weep over the broken glass.’ Will the broken glass recover itself? Can any glue fix it to bring its originality? Remember, we are living in the real world and neither in an imaginary world nor in the magical world. A broken glass is a broken glass, is a broken glass and is a broken glass. It is a perfect past. Now be in the present perfect and look toward the future perfect. Ask yourself, ‘how shall I regain my lost colour and shape?’ It is perfect to have a broken glass. But the broken glass should be a lesson to build a perfect amphitheater where you entertain several broken glasses and thus lead them to their realization. It is nothing but ‘buying a new glass.’

The transparent natural glass allows the light to pass in without any difficulty. Natural glass is a “colourless” glass (Is there a glass called colourless?! Is the ‘colour’ my imagination? After all, does colour exist at all? Let me not gossip here). It allows one to see what is in and out without any trouble. In other words, transparent glass ‘reveals my nakedness.’ I am stripped off to my nakedness in front of the other. When Adam and Eve sinned they felt this ‘nakedness.’ I am revealed to the other what I am. Now the poets can see the beauty and can compose lyrics; beloved can taste and wonder; journalists can click pictures and report it in the daily mails; scientists can question and experiment; philosophers can philosophize, theologians can theologize, politicians can create polity. Amn’t I a butt of all the jokes to others?

Opaque glass is still an ‘artificial-natural’ glass. It is natural, because I am born with these colours. It is artificial because, I can paint the paint I would like to be. It is said, “humans are made and not born.” We are made humans by our qualities and potentialities. The opaqueness does not allow or reflect the light completely. It arrests and keeps within itself the portion which should not be exposed. I am safe here for my nakedness is not exposed. No poets can compose, no sociologists, philosophers, theologians and scientists can reveal my inner self. But is this kind of life worth living?

I am in a troubled now. At one hand, coloured glass exposes my glory; on the other, colourless glass reveals my nakedness, making me feel shy. I feel I need to be transparent that I may be what I am. But, looking at the exposure of my nakedness, I feel I should be opaque and dark. Should I be, by the by have any colour at all? Colourfulness and colourlessness is my giveness. It is my actual life. Let me be that, and be fuller in life. What a chimera is this life!?