Wednesday is Green

Or so my mother said.

In fact, Wednesday is orange.

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s, Mom and I first divulged our synesthesia to each other. We didn’t yet have a word for it and we each thought it was normal. Doesn’t everyone see words and numbers in colors? Especially the days of the week and the months of the year?

We were floored to discover that no, other people do not—including my father and my husband.

From that conversation onward, Mom and I would play argue about whose colors were correct.

In 2006, Mom wrote and recorded a humorous personal essay on the topic for a local NPR station in Roanoke, VA. I also submitted the article to The International Association of Color Consultants/Designers (IACC-NA) of which I was an active member at the time. They published her article in their newsletter.

So, are you a synesthete? Do you hear music in color? Do you taste food or drink in color?

The Cleveland Clinic describes synesthesia as follows:

Synesthesia is when your brain routes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses, causing you to experience more than one sense simultaneously. Some examples include tasting words or linking colors to numbers and letters.

In the late 90s, science caught up to what many of us already knew.

Also from the Cleveland Clinic article:

Scientists and researchers have worked to describe and understand synesthesia since the 1800s, but skepticism about this was also very common. It wasn’t until the 1990s that imaging technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) allowed scientists to see activity in specific brain areas. Those technologies were key in confirming that synesthesia is real.

Psychology Today says only 3-5% of people are synesthetes. Most of them women. As a synesthete who, for most of my life, thought it was standard fare, I find that number shockingly low.

As awareness of the phenomenon has grown, especially the association with famous creatives, there’s developed something of bragging rights around the idea—a silly human phenomenon of its own. But there does seem to be a connection with creative thinking that opens pathways to more lateral thinking. Obviously, not all synesthetes are famous creatives (myself included!), and not all famously creative people are synesthetes. But there is a fascinating overlap.

Famous synesthetes:

Vincent Van Gogh
Vladimir Nabokov
Duke Ellington
Billy Joel
David Hockney
Marilyn Monroe

You can find more on this wiki page.

I believe, as studies have shown, synesthesia has physiological roots. I also believe it has strong connections to the human emotional response to sensory input, which is tied up in physiological and learned (cultural and experiential) connections. As both a visual artist and creative writer, the psychological response to color interests me greatly, but is a topic for another day.

But first, here’s Mom’s 2006 essay. Written at a time when much less was known about synesthesia. And with her usual humorous take:

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Wednesday is Green

When I first heard the word “synesthesia” I thought it was a disease, and I figured I had it. As it turned out, it’s a condition, and I do have it, along with millions of others, most of them artists, writers, and musicians.

People with this phenomenon see mental images of numbers, letters, days of the week, months of the year, and so forth in color. For example, in my mind, Sunday is red. It’s so red it’ll burn your eyes out. Monday is brown, Tuesday is blue, Wednesday is green, Thursday’s black, Friday’s white and Saturday’s yellow. When I related that to my daughter, an artist, she said, “No, no, no, Mom. You’ve got it all wrong. Sunday is yellow, Monday is red, Tuesday’s light blue, Wednesday’s orange, Thursday’s dark blue, Friday’s green, and Saturday’s white.”

Ridiculous! I can live with all of that except her vision of Wednesday. Everyone in their right mind knows Wednesday is green. It will never be orange, it’s been green all my life, so why would it change now?

I checked with a friend of mine, another artist, and she insists that Sunday is brown and Monday is green. And she takes it a step further. She sees people in color. She says I’m red, my husband is gray, her husband is blue, her daughters are aqua and green, and her son is purple.

Scientists are investigating this phenomenon in order to analyze the creative process. One study discovered that the brains of synesthetes like me are cross-wired. It seems that with us, the sensations of sight, sound, touch, and so forth “leak” from one area of the brain to another. It may be genetic, but they say everyone does this to an extent. We’re all familiar with the terms, “icy blue,” “hot pink,” and “cool green.”

With my daughter and me, though, the months of the year are also in color. I see January as red, February as black, March as purple, and so on. Furthermore, a few of us arrange the months in the shape of an oval in our minds, so we can see the entire year at a glance.

Then there’s my husband who sees none of it in color. And in his mind, the days of the week and months of the year are in a straight line, as across a page. He advised me not to share my “visions” with anyone else lest someone suggest I need to be committed.

But I’m not afraid. If anyone wants to know what colors the numbers one to ten are, you can write to me and I’ll tell you. If you see them differently, that’s okay. But there are some things in life you can’t compromise on. There are some things you just know deep inside of you. My daughter may say I’m wrong, and my husband may call me crazy, but to my dying day, Wednesday will always be green.

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Now, what do you think? Are you a synesthete? How does it occur to you? Have you heard of synesthesia before?