colorless musings (Summer 07)

At one specific block along Sherbrooke, there is an intriguing juxtaposition of old and stately with postmodern and sleek. The stones seem to have substance and history, topped by a sloping copper roof. That Victorian elegance (quite literally–there’s a statue of Queen Victoria outside) is situated next to simple, clean lines of metal and concrete. The postmodern aesthetics of the new music library, with its huge walls of glass, stark light-wood floor and simple lacquered black chairs, provide an interesting ambiance for study. I felt right at home with my sleek white macbook, my black nano and black attire for the day. All around me was a repetition of dark and light.

Perhaps I also felt comfortable there because often I have conceptualized the world in that same sort of dichotomy of black and white. Gradations of grey make me uncomfortable. The transition of shadowy, not-easily-recognizable shades, with a mysterious affinity for neither the one pole or the other–that is a place that refuses to be part of the easy contrast of definition. And that frustrates me.

A lot of life does not reside in the black-and-white. But I’m starting to realize that in that grey, in that ever-so-vast space between black and white, there is potential. There is change. There is movement.