Colour Theory and Team Work

Did you know that if you mixed orange with primary blue, you get a rich, warm brown? I did not, until a few days ago, since I have known nothing of colour theory until my sabbatical. Most days you will find me in the annex of brotherhood centre mixing colours like an alchemist, and I discover something new every day: hues, values, darkening and lightening. Bright red turns into deep burgundy when mixed with green, its complementary colour. Fascinating…two colours, not that pretty by themselves, but when mixed together, they yield a rich, warm third colour which sings.

I cannot help but immediately draw the analogy. All of us have gifts, some of us more than we know what to do with. But often those gifts, skills, character traits are slightly one-sided, loud, even garish: they long for complimentarity, for something to mix with and blend. We all know the outgoing socialite, able to talk to anybody, the life of the party. Yet he often struggles to listen, to come alongside others, because he has already moved on to the next “victim”. Or the entrepreneur, who never lacks good ideas and is stimulated by change and newness; but to bring her ideas to fruition she needs the steady plotter, the details person, even the “bean counter” who makes sure the I’s are dotted and the T’s crossed. Just like with colours, it is the combination of those gifts and personalities which brings out rich harmonies and beautiful things: alone they stick out like a lonely Chagall hanging in a train station.

But for this harmony to come about I need to be ready to mix it up, to be yoked with others, to team up with those who are not at all like me. Yet my tendency is so often to seek out those who are of the same colour as myself; this is where it’s safe (and boring). But I guess sabbaticals are for mixing…so let’s see who I will meet next.