The Mixing of Colors Blue & Red

What do you get when mixing the colors blue and red? You think know the answer? If you said purple, you would not be correct. Purple is not an actual color found in the color spectrum. Mixing blue and red creates violet. Sir Isaac Newton’s Theory of Light proved that the color spectrum consists of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. I memorized these colors in science class under the acronym ROY G BIV. Maybe you did as well.

Whereas violet is a spectral color (single shade), purple is any of a variety of combinations of blue and red (multiple shades). Violet is a “real” color, purple is only “perceived.” Unlike the seven spectral colors, which are single wavelength colors (monochromatic), there is no single wavelength that will make you see purple. To make violet, neither blue nor red have to give up their unique attributes, but rather, it is those attributes that make violet, violet.

We live in a country in which approximately an equal percent of people lean “blue” as do “red.” Earlier this year, Pew Research Center reported that about two-thirds of registered voters identified as partisan, roughly split between blue Democrat (33%) and red Republican (32%). The remaining 35% identify as independent or something else. However, of that number, only 4% say they do not lean either blue or red, with the majority leaning almost equally toward either color.  

We don’t seem to agree on anything, in fact, we don’t even agree to disagree any longer. Instead, we live in a world of “I am right, and if you disagree with me, then frankly, you are wrong.” We seem to never see violet.

What if, in this volatile election year, each of us, regardless of whether we are blue or red, or any other color of the spectrum, made it our goal to be (or become) someone who instead of simply seeing blue and red, instead sees what those two colors, when mixed, create – violet. What if the goal of every interaction, every dialogue, was to have a relationship with the other person, rather than prove a point, or to simply be right? What if we focused not on how someone voted, but on how we treat those who voted differently than we did? What if we learned to create violet? Seeing violet does not mean giving up your blue or your red. What is does mean is knowing that both colors add a vibrancy that can only be found when mixing the colors.  

In this very divided world in which we find ourselves, where every color seems to think it is the only color in the spectrum, this mixing of diverse and sometimes very different colors might best be summed up as “artistic” peacemaking.

And if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, being a peacemaker comes as part of the deal; it isn’t an optional add-on. In His most famous teaching, the Beatitudes, one of the things Jesus said was – “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). The apostle Paul says this, found in Romans 14:19 – “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” There is a real connection that occurs between people when peace is pursued. The psalmist writes this – “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).

While blue and red are beautiful colors in and of themselves, what if instead of seeing violet as losing both blue and red, we see it as a mixing of those two distinct colors to create something of greater beauty! And it is important to remember that both colors are needed to make violet.

So, my challenge to all of us – in this polarized country we live in, what can you and I do to not just be blue or red, but rather, the mixing of blue and red into violet?

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