This is my group's presentation about "The Colourful World of Calum McCall". We had to choose a gap in the story and write something about that gap. The gap we chose is: The brightly coloured pills. Why does Calum take them? Why do people take them?
We asked our classmates to remember something which made them feel amazed when they were children. And that is because one wonderful characteristic children have is the capacity for amazement. As Calum as a child saw his world in bright colours, so do children marvel at what they see around them. You can see that reflected on the variety of ideas our classmates have all told us: dancing under the rain, watching the stars, etc.
In our early years we always wonder, every step we take is a step towards discovery. This capacity for amazement is so closely related to discovery that it became one of the pillars of Philosophy. The ancient Greek understood that an inquisitive mind together with childlike amazement was the key to explore and later interpret their world and the events which occurred in it.
But what happens as we grow older? We are no longer amazed. we are just too busy, too tired or simply too uninterested in anything to stop, watch the world around us and marvel. We now need to focus on a new objective: survival. Life is not a gift anymore.
The rat race we live in fixes two ideas in our minds: “Produce” and “Consume”. And do it fast. Anything that does not contribute to our economic welfare is useless. Time is money, be quick or somebody else will be ahead of you and take your place.
As time passes by we become more isolated; the breech between an individual and the rest of the world gets larger; the colours vanish. What happens around us is no longer important, only what happens to us is.
But is that a life of happiness? Certainly not. Some people may remain indifferent and keep pulling without thinking. But others feel the vacuum. Others realise there has to be something else, that their empty lives are not enough.
The saddest aspect of this is that usually neither the first group nor the second does anything about it. They may be indifferent, or afraid, or they may feel insecure about what might become of them and their loved ones, thus very few people dares to get off the train.
Calum does not. He is aware of the vacuum the moment his baby sees the colours in the sky and he sees nothing. It makes him sad and insomniac, so we cannot say he does not care about it. But he gives in, and takes the pills, it is his sacrifice. People give in, and take their pills too. Like ostriches hiding their heads in holes, they try to make the feeling of emptiness disappear magically without dealing with the causes.
The pills are brightly coloured, but their colour is artificial. It does not matter whether they are actual pills, drugs; or metaphorical pills, like for example, consumer goods. People turn to them believing they will fill the vacuum, or at least hide it, anaesthetising them so that their pain disappears for a moment, producing the illusion that the colours are back, and so is happiness; when in actuality they sink them deeper and, as in Calum’s case, they even suppress his dreams.
Could we ever overcome that? It is a hard task, getting off the train and throwing away the pills. But if in that way we can get back the true colours of our childhood, it is certainly worth a try.
I really enjoyed the class. We listened to some songs about colours, which was one of the gaps chosen by my classmates; we made some funny activities, such as painting with tempera; and saw some interesting pictures.
