Friday, March 25, 2011

Black and White




It's a black and white world outside my window this morning.  It was just a few days ago I was sharing my excitement over the green grass and the budding trees and here we are this morning with snow.  The trees and bushes outside of my window are wet so they look black and then there is a layer of snow on top of each branch.  The grass is covered so, with the exception of a patch of green around the tree across the street, my world is black and white this morning.  Even the bunny farm across the street is all white.

I was thinking about a conversation with my son last night and comparing it to my black and white world.  It is amazing to me that nineteen year old young people still try to make everything fit into black or white, wrong or right, night or day.  I understand that it is really maturity and life experience that teach us that, while we may try to make everything black or white, the world is really a wonderful rainbow of colors.  It is when we embrace all of the colors that our world becomes rich and exciting. 

Think about it for a minute, life is the hardest when we try to make it fit into our categories, whatever they may be.  As long as we struggle and force and fight and coerce, the world fights back.  The more you focus on just how much things are not working out, they don't.  It's only when you give up the struggle and begin to enjoy all the colors that everything begins to fall into place.  You begin to find answers to your questions and those things you have been fighting for so long, miraculously take their place.  Life becomes much easier.  You enjoy each day more.

The world wasn't meant to be black and white.  People were not intended to be black or white.  It was all created intentionally to be a rainbow of colors, a rainbow of choices and it's in the choices that we find the colors, the really good stuff.  How boring our world would be if we were all either black or white.  There are those who try to declare that whites are better than blacks, but I would ask, which white are you talking about because my white looks different from my friend's white and hers is different from her neighbor's.  So, which white is the best?  Which black is the best?  Which religion is the best?  Which school is the best?

I think the point is they are all unique and that is a GOOD thing.  They each have good traits and bad traits and loving traits and annoying traits and it's really not for us to judge anyone or anything outside of ourselves.  Who am I to say that my black and white yard is any prettier than the neighbor's black and white yard?  I don't believe I am qualified to judge that for we each see through our eyes what we choose to see and disregard what we choose to disregard. 

Personally, I look forward to tomorrow when the colors will all be back and I can enjoy the rich textures and vibrant hues.  It is this rainbow outside my window that I enjoy gazing at while I'm 'working' here at my desk.  I enjoy a brief moment of black and white, but I live for the world of color.  I'm like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.  Today I'm living in Kansas (close, only about 45 miles away), but tomorrow I'll be back somewhere over the rainbow.  There really is "no place like home."

2 comments:

Marilyn Jean said...

I agree that nuance, that subtlety between extremes like black and white are hard for people to get past. Not just teens either. It is easy to see the world in extremes but then you miss the nuance which is what makes the world good and exciting. People are not rubber stamped into existence. How boring that would be. We are unique and that should be celebrated. It's nothing to be afraid of and it is sad that some see "different from me" as bad.

Ereline said...

Thanks so much, Marilyn! You are so right, it's not just teens. I'm so grateful to be able to see all the 'colors' of the world!