During my first two years in LA I was an instructor in a private school.  We joked that we served the hill dwelling cultures of Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades.  In eighth grade science I was discussing the periodic table and how its structure related to the shell structure of the atom.  One rather impish student asked me "Sir, what color is an electron?" I was delighted with the question and used it to describe how, while electrons could not be said to possess color, they could exhibit color in the form of electromagnetic radiation released when the electron jumped from one shell to another, as in some of our demonstrations with chemicals on a nichrome wire when placed in a bunsen burner.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."