When Mr. I., who, as an aesthete and artist, understood himself through his sensory experiences, lost his color-vision, he was at great risk of losing all passion. Passion that seemed inborn to him. Passions that he had developed over the years. But it was not the loss of colored vision in itself that threatened Mr. I.’s passion. After all, we know now that his story continued on with more passion than he had ever had before. It was Mr. I.’s own fear that was a threat. Mr. I.’s fear of the unknown, the different, the alien, his fear of change, of missing out, of misjudgement – these were the the real obstacles that kept Mr. I. (and understandably so) from actively seeking out the positive.

Mr. I.'s experience of a "nuclear sunrise" and all his subsequent realizations of a hidden aesthetic were profound affirmations, I think, of the necessary beauty that all things carry (Sacks, 14). Our vision captures lots of beauty, an achromatopsic person's vision captures lots of beauty, a mantis shrimp captures lots of beauty; but not one can claim to know better than the others what the full picture of beauty in our universe looks like. Mr. I., though perhaps a bit haughty at the height of his "black-and-white phase", having experienced two dimensions of this beauty, likely recognized that at the root of all his visually-oriented identity traits was a passion for this beauty that was far beyond himself, a beauty that was not dependent on his perception, a cosmic beauty that he was merely observing and trying to replicate for others to better understand.

I would add that, having recently worked with V. S. Ramachandran's synesthete chapter from his book The Tell Tale Brain, it is difficult to avoid imagining Mr. I. as having an especially adaptable perspective when it comes to sensory experience, him being a cross-sensory synesthete. Mr. I.'s whole life contained unique glimpses into esoteric portions of this "capital-b" Beauty. It might take someone with "normal" vision much longer (if they ever could at all) to adapt to a new-ish world to a point where z/s/he might admire it.