If You Can’t Change the World, Change Your Lens [Writing Prompt #256]

I mistakenly thought my friend was taking pictures of her toes. She had her feet up on the front seat’s armrest and her phone held up to her face while she reclined in back. We were on a three hour car trip upstate and I was learning all about Snapchat.

Snapchat (for those of you who have been living under a rock like me) is an app where you can add filters to a photo of someone so that they look like a member of the band KISS or have a jaw that is wider than a face. You can add flowers and face paint.

My friend took this pink floral filter of me (above). I loved the flowers dancing over my head! It made me think of the day before our trip when we sat by the hotel pool at the place where I teach yoga. A guest came up to us and asked if we wanted to try his “color blind” glasses. Of course, we did.

The glasses made the trees greener and the sky bluer. The pale pink flowers were now fuchsia. I didn’t want to give the glasses back. But I did.

Now it is Monday, post technicolor, and I wonder if I wore those sunglasses all the time would my mood be better? If everyone wore color brightening glasses would we see each other differently, be kinder, more sympathetic? What do you think?

**What are the filters that change your mood?  What would it be like to see the world in a single color? Imagine your life with pink trees and candy-colored walls. Write about what it would be like to see the world with a new lens or with glasses that belong to someone else.**