The Authenticity Shift: Showing Our True Colors
- Laura A. Weber
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
"Hummingbird don't fly away, fly away... Hummingbird don't fly away, fly away... ...The draught of understanding; wisdom, peace and love is ours... Don't fly away..." - "Hummingbird" Seals & Crofts, 1972
Color and light! Iridescence and vibrant color display among hummingbirds, especially in their their crown and gorget (throat) regions, provide endless opportunity for an ornithologist's focus and spectrometric playscape. The unrivaled diversity of high-chroma, pure-spectrum hues are investigated by renowned hummingbird biologists who note that the wildly vast color spectrum of hummingbirds is unrivaled not only in the avian sphere, but in the natural world as a whole.
"Among the 360 or so hummingbird species, there is example after example of colors that seem to be plucked out of a prism: the iridescent rainbow of the Fiery-throated Hummingbird, the shimmering purple and green of the Sparkling Violetear, the searing magenta of Anna’s Hummingbird, and the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t, night-sky violet of the Velvet-purple Coronet." (source)
Hummingbirds' ability to display and manipulate a wide spectrum of color is stupefying. When males perform spectacular diving acrobatics, their crown and gorget hues are most pronounced, causing females to take notice. Evolutionary adaptation to attract potential mates includes saturated feather color pigment, along with tiny barbules on the outermost edges of their feathers containing multiple layers of flattened melanosomes. Light refracts through a thin layer of keratin in the melanosomes, revealing an astounding and brilliant color array every time the hummingbird twitches in the light. This creates a shimmering, iridescent "Ta-Da!" moment each time a shift occurs. One moment, the hummingbird may appear brownish-black or green, the next moment, bright iridescent indigo or magenta, flaming orange or brilliant red.
How does this work? Like the color mirages produced in an oil slick atop a puddle of water, light bends to refract color pigment in hummingbirds' delicate feather structure. The mirage is plunging scientists deeper into the color spectrum, the physics of light, and the marvels of hummingbird physiology. They are not the only ones captivated by the color shift. Photographer Steven Kessel captured the subtle shifting of an Anna's Hummingbird as it appeared from various perspectives to have a brownish-green crown and throat, then with subtle shifts in movement, appeared to be iridescent magenta, orange, yellow and green. You have to see it to appreciate the dramatic effect.
What can hummingbirds teach us about showing our true colors? What if we could shift into authenticity by imitation?
What may appear to be flat, lacking vibrancy or meaning, may be just a matter of shifting our presentation or perspective. Like a brilliant hummingbird, we may need just the slightest adjustment.
Edges and Layering - Layering of melanosomes in hummingbird barbules allows for light-play and color shift. Edge capacities in the feather structure offer nuance, shading, and a shimmering effect to generate focus and attraction. Showing our authentic self is less about surface, and more about exploring what is at the edges of our awareness, and disclosing at our initmate depths. How do we reveal our innermost layers, where our questions, disappointments, delights, and fears reside? Those who come near us will appreciate the prismic facets of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual qualities, along with a veneer of demonstrative attributes like kindness, generosity, and curiosity. Attraction through what is noticeable and pronounced can lead to a shift in focus toward what is deeper. When our deeper self appears, there is an interplay of light and shadow, morphing color gradients, all revealing multi-faceted perspectives, questions, and dreams. All this can ravish and enchant our dialogue partners and companions if we learn to go deeper and allow the light to play among the layers.
Movement - If we are viewed from one perspective, we may seem one-dimensional to others, lackluster, just what someone might expect from a fill-in-the-blank demographic or profile photo. We may appear at first to be run-of-the-mill, vapid, inert, or intransigent in our world-views, with little that makes us distinct in a crowd of like-minded idealogues. The hummingbird moves constantly, shifts and hovers, soars wider and dives deeper. Our unique qualities reveal an infinite variety of interests, perspectives, and creative gifts. Like the rapid movements of the hummingbird, when we exercise our capacity for curiosity and imagination, we are exceptionally creative, constantly aware, observant, and questioning in our intellect, affect, and spiritual awareness. Even as our physical mobility wanes, when we are active in our interior life, our true colors are revealed, creating a dazzling effect of intricate hue and pattern that is irresistible.
Adaptation - Our ability to embrace dynamism and flourish in the midst of change is the difference between thriving and extinction in the natural world. We might behave "appropriately" for outward appearances. Learning to accept inherited cultural conventions without critical reflection, regardless of their ethical or spiritual implications, can be like preventing light from reaching our iridescent feathers. Adopting popular world-views to fit in, then espousing an entrenched defense of a position to preserve the status quo at any cost means that our authentic selves may remain buried, even denigrated or denied. Our true selves, evolving, growing and shifting when new information and life experience come to light, may be sorely neglected. If we want to be truly seen and known, we might allow light to shine beneath the surface and bounce among the many layers. Being the person who "does the acceptable thing" in a context requiring change may initially avoid confrontation with those reluctant to relinquish control or power over others, but at what cost? It may also stultify healthy connection, growth and adaptation for not only the individual but for the good of the whole. Authenticity in the uncertainty of the moment yields potential for real presence and depth connection. Showing our true colors may catalyze change that serves the whole.
Perhaps some of the most astounding, chromatically diverse wonders of the natural world may inspire this desire among humanity, when we are sorely in need of depth reflection, color and light: Shift into authenticity to reveal our true and outrageously gorgeous selves. And let the astonishment begin.
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