B&W:gettin' railroaded by my senses...or out of 'em.

From: the late Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin's Dad was known for teaching Calvin 3 or 4 "impossible things" in one Sunday strip. On one occasion Calvin asks him when color photography was invented. Dad told him that it was never invented; the whole world was in black and white until the 1930's!

On another occasion, Bill Watterson did a black and white strip, on a Sunday no less, in which there was no shading, just outlines. Calvin is disoriented at first, but as so often happens, the last panel shifts back out of Calvinland to Adultland, and Dad says, "The trouble with you is that you see things in black and white." Calvin replies, loudly, "THAT'S BECAUSE THAT'S SOMETIMES THE WAY IT IS!!!"

Dad himself here trips from the land of disinformation--when he's feeling playful or sarcastic--back to the world of real adult aphorisms and "wholesome principles." when Calvin does something wrong or inconvenient. But have we not always been admonished to see things in shades of grey? Not being oversimplistic or rigid, etc.? Admittedly this is hard to teach, and often has to be more caught than taught. A dualistic mindset, which we all have in common whether we like it or not, is what we long to escape; either by pursuing complete objectivity(which is not possible physically esp. at the quantum level or in currently fashionable chaos theory) or by abandoning the project and subjecting ourselves to what some call, "Absolute Relativity," as in, "It's all relative." (All is largely unknown and quite quite quite large, and besides is an Absolute Truth claim that usually pronounced in no uncertain terms!!)

Oliver Sacks the nuerologist/writer, has shown us many strange syndromes including the case of a painter who because of a cerebral accident (?) lost all color vision. And there are those who have never had it--like the man born blind. People who receive their sight late in life are often dismayed and many try to continue to live life as if they were still blind, it is so disconcerting. Those who received sight in Jesus' day however were clearly joyful, so such miracles were across the board, from receiving not only sight but comprehension, coping ability,joy, faith and peace as well..i.e. spiritual sight, insight to go with the out-sight.

"Do you want to get well?" He asked the lame man at the pool.
A lot of people don't--in my office hands a statement that, "Part of getting well is wanting to get well." We call the sick role as often freighted with "secondary gain," all the way from grabbing govt funds to augmenting addictions, esp. the addiction of self-pity.

Speaking of patients, it is 0900 and guess what? More about black, white, shading, and colors later;sorry no time to proofread ...catch y'all later