50 Shades of Black And White

By Benjamin Gumboc

                                "The most beautiful colors in the world are black and white, both contains all colors yet excludes all,” reads the little boy at the note given to him by his teacher. He looks up to see her black hair up in a tight bun and white face smiling warmly down at him. "Look around you," she said: Around me? The ceiling is white, the floor is black, and his classmates are a mixture of blacks and whites. Teacher tapped him encouragingly on the shoulder, "You are blessed with the vision to see the origin of colors. From there, you will see the real colors of everything." Such a comforting words for a color blind boy like him. She could have just told him straight, how pathetic it is to be a color blind. Sigh! His world is like an old photograph from the past or the television in the 50s and 60s…just black and white. He nodded with his head down quietly, as if accepting the comfort and the reality and started to head home.

                                Earlier, during lunch break, he saw his classmate put vinegar on the Principal's juice. Everything just turned into ominous black. While this morning, his momma kissed him in the cheek and told him how much she loves him and suddenly the world illuminates in white! And this afternoon, he pushed big Sammy away because he was bullying little Annie. Big, bad Sammy fell on the ground and started to cry, while fragile, little Annie continued to cry of fear. And lo and behold, the surrounding suddenly turns gray to him. What are these changes in colors is telling him? He was confused. The little boy sat down on a swing at the lonely park, trying to contemplate on his vision of color changes. Might not be so complex as he only sees two colors but the changes it does on the situations is like implicating something more than just…black and white. He looks at the sky and tries to play a story out of it. The white clouds of the day are seemingly teasingly pushing the black clouds of the night, as if telling them, let us go through the day, you have all the night to enjoy the sky. Hmmm but what is beneath those cottony clouds? Probably the cute little angels with their little wings playfully riding the clouds in a game of race. His feet touched the ground. And what is beneath this thick black soil? Hmmm probably the naughty little devils steaming with their seemingly endless anger in their hearts emitting searing heat above the soil to our world. “Oh, wow! Maybe that’s why it’s a scorching hot today!

                                ”He exclaimed to himself. But what makes people in the middle of these two contrasting worlds surrounding it? 

Angels above the ground with their good naturedness, devils below the ground with their evilness...and people on the ground?

                                Maybe it’s just complicated. Some can be good? Some can be bad?

                                But then,Just because he sometimes cheats in quizzes doesn't mean he's not a loving son anymore. Just because he hurt big Sammy doesn't mean he hadn't been a good friend to little Annie as he saved her. Oh how he hates his vision. It can't be just black and white, can it just be that way? So he picked up a flower and stared at it, trying to extract some colors out of the white he sees. But it’s still gives nothing but the purest of white. They said flowers are like a box of colored crayons and more. But how it also change its color as to the reactions of the people who see it. Some can see more striking colors as they appreciate it more, others may see lesser of a color if flowers are more bothersome than a thing of beauty. Like what if a person is allergic to pollen? Then the flower would turn black? What if another person find flowers relaxing, then it would turn white? The boy suddenly broke into a wide grin. “Yes, that is it!” He exclaimed to himself. Once in English class, teacher wrote Stephen Crane's words, "when the prophet, a complacent fat man, arrived at the mountain top. He cried: "Woe to my knowledge! I intended to see good white lands and bad black lands - But the scene is gray." No, there's no absolute good nor absolute bad.

                                After all, we are neither the perfect angels nor the expelled devils. We are people, born of purpose, children of colors.

                                So in his mind, he started painting the world as it is. The flower in his hand in fiery red. The sky in a peaceful blue. The surrounding a complex colors of different kind. A colorful but complicated world. He skipped happily to his home.

                                "My little boy home?" She hugged him upon seeing him. She is illuminating! "Have you been a good boy in school today?" She said. Little boy shook his head, "No mommy! Not good. But not bad neither. Just a boy." He touched her face lovingly. And there was white, enveloping the whole situation. Of course, sometimes it doesn't always have to be gray either. It's not very hard to figure out when things are just simply happy. And now he is, illuminated in white, his color of happiness.