Or so my mother said. In fact, Wednesday is orange. 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?
Great article! Very interesting. I’ve always associated color with things like days of the week, months, numbers etc. I had no idea there was a name for it. I’ve always seen Wednesday as gray or green, but Thursday is decidedly yellow. 😉
😂 I thought that everyone did this. I made a post on social media awhile back asking people what color they thought Wednesday was (yes, I actually did that) and was surprised that I didn’t get much response.
I'm not a synesthete, but your informative (and synchronistic!) post offers exactly what I was looking for to distinguish a character in one of my short stories. Thank you!🙏
To my great dismay, I’m “only” highly sensitive but not a synesthete - what I love to know, although I’m not sure you can put it into words: what do you “see” when you say a weekday or a number is a certain colour? Do you see the word in your mind’s eye in that colour, or is suddenly the whole world in that colour, or does it just “feel” green? 🤔
Ah, yes, this is tough. For letters and numbers, it's pretty straightforward - I see the letter or number in the color- in my mind. Not visually as the actual marks on the page/screen. For numbers, it really just applies strongly in single digits and somewhat in the teens. Thinking of double digits now.. yes, if I visualize them, they are taking on colors. Letters are less strong for me than numbers.
Days of the week - this is where it's trickier. Definitely, if I think of the word "Monday", my mind sees the word as red. Not on the screen as I'm looking at the word - just if I see the word in my mind. But, if a think of "Monday" conceptually, there is somewhat of a red filter over it.
As Mom's essay mentions, I also see the year in an oval. I'm constantly checking my position on it. Let's see, this is February - I visualize myself, as if on a track. January is the center of the top of the oval. July is opposite on the bottom flat side. June and October are rounding the far/opposite ends. Which means, January through May are crammed into the top right quadrant. Not exactly evenly spaced. LOL!
To think I was 40 before I learned this isn't the way everyone navigates.
Thank you for that long reply, now I have a better idea of how you experience this. I believe we all have our unique ways to navigate the world. During the pandemic I realised how much I rely on reading peoples faces to understand what they are saying - I’m very empathetic (I reject the woo-woo term empath) and with masks covering half of the face I felt I was missing a lot of information. To an extent I guess everybody had that problem, but I really felt like all I got was static noise because my brain was looking for information it couldn’t get.
Oh Lausanne, this is so wonderful. I'd only heard of synesthesia before your post. Love it. Really something to think about today.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. We are complex creatures, aren't we? It keeps us wondering.
Truly!
Great article! Very interesting. I’ve always associated color with things like days of the week, months, numbers etc. I had no idea there was a name for it. I’ve always seen Wednesday as gray or green, but Thursday is decidedly yellow. 😉
Woo-hoo! Now you know! Did you think it unusual or assume everyone saw things the same way? And Thursday is dark blue, by the way...
😂 I thought that everyone did this. I made a post on social media awhile back asking people what color they thought Wednesday was (yes, I actually did that) and was surprised that I didn’t get much response.
Oh, that's funny. Crickets. I guess we're just wired differently.
I'm not a synesthete, but your informative (and synchronistic!) post offers exactly what I was looking for to distinguish a character in one of my short stories. Thank you!🙏
Folded Hands
That's fantastic! I'd love to see what you do with it!
To my great dismay, I’m “only” highly sensitive but not a synesthete - what I love to know, although I’m not sure you can put it into words: what do you “see” when you say a weekday or a number is a certain colour? Do you see the word in your mind’s eye in that colour, or is suddenly the whole world in that colour, or does it just “feel” green? 🤔
Ah, yes, this is tough. For letters and numbers, it's pretty straightforward - I see the letter or number in the color- in my mind. Not visually as the actual marks on the page/screen. For numbers, it really just applies strongly in single digits and somewhat in the teens. Thinking of double digits now.. yes, if I visualize them, they are taking on colors. Letters are less strong for me than numbers.
Days of the week - this is where it's trickier. Definitely, if I think of the word "Monday", my mind sees the word as red. Not on the screen as I'm looking at the word - just if I see the word in my mind. But, if a think of "Monday" conceptually, there is somewhat of a red filter over it.
As Mom's essay mentions, I also see the year in an oval. I'm constantly checking my position on it. Let's see, this is February - I visualize myself, as if on a track. January is the center of the top of the oval. July is opposite on the bottom flat side. June and October are rounding the far/opposite ends. Which means, January through May are crammed into the top right quadrant. Not exactly evenly spaced. LOL!
To think I was 40 before I learned this isn't the way everyone navigates.
Thank you for that long reply, now I have a better idea of how you experience this. I believe we all have our unique ways to navigate the world. During the pandemic I realised how much I rely on reading peoples faces to understand what they are saying - I’m very empathetic (I reject the woo-woo term empath) and with masks covering half of the face I felt I was missing a lot of information. To an extent I guess everybody had that problem, but I really felt like all I got was static noise because my brain was looking for information it couldn’t get.
Wow, that makes a lot of sense!