Friday, August 30, 2019

True Colors


How do you see it?
“Black & White”
We say this phrase represents the idea of absolutes. 
We also say “cut and dried” or “open and shut” – 
meaning no further investigation is necessary. 
“It is what it is.”
Most of us freely acknowledge that there are nearly infinite shades of gray
as we advance toward or away from one extreme or the other – black or white.
The existence of all those shades of gray would seem to contradict the philosophical concept of absoluteness.
Nevertheless, absolute black and absolute white, in the realm of “color perception,” do exist,
and they are absolute in their representation of total blackness and total whiteness.
But are we misaligned in this interpretation?
I believe color itself is what testifies to the existence of absolutes.
And I believe the rainbow, with its unerring display of seven different colors from red to violet, 
is a natural witness to the existence of absolutes.
The stark and wondrous beauty of the multitude of colors in nature speaks more surely
to the assurance and confidence of absolute truth
than either the total absence of color (black) or the presence of all colors simultaneously (white).
“Black & White” gives us the temerity to argue against truth
because our eyes tell us all day every day that life is much more colorful than black and white.
The truth is colorful.
“Black & White” obscures the truth.
It is when we see in full color that we see the truth.

Thursday, August 8, 2019

Life Is a Jumble


Life is a jumble of thises and that’s

(or “these” and “those,” if you insist)

Of cinnamon crumbles and baseballs and bats

It ebbs and it flows

It rises and falls

To the highest of highs

And the lowest of lows

Stuffed full with the corniest rhyming and rhythms

With splashes of horns and sparkling of cymbals

Tinkling of bells, explosive percussions

Music fills life in all its mutations

Moment by moment

The colors remain

Bright as the sun

Then gray as the rain

All of it is LIFE

LIFE in all-caps

From the first lullabye

To the sounding of taps

One bite at a time

Savored, enjoyed

The power of living

Of life

And of love