Early this morning, I couldn’t sleep so I turned on the TV, and the movie “Pleasantville” was on. I remember seeing the movie in the theater and that I liked it a lot, but seeing it again in the wee hours of the morning was like seeing it for the first time. In the background of what is happening in our world today, its relevance and timing was a great comfort to me. In times of great conflict, it’s easy to hold onto the comfort of a world of black and white where sameness lulls us into believing that it is the perfect formula for a pleasant world…except that humanity and sameness are mutually exclusive. Seeing the world in black and white and refusing to acknowledge the discomfort and challenges that life brings locks us into the worst kind of illusion, one that leads down a sinister path…like the one in Pleasantville where color and feeling are criminalized. The film was a comfort to me because of how I understand color. (see past posts). Good and Bad, right and wrong are not black and white…and living a “good” life doesn’t mean that all will be pleasant all of the time. Growth, life, evolution and love don’t work that way. The different aspects that color brings to our life definitely can cause chaos, but offers so much growth and greater dimension too. Those that choose a black and white life, evoke pity in me, but there is a growing sense of anger and resentment too, because of the restrictions their limited view imposes on mine. Truthfully, I have changed a lot during these troubling times, and the movement toward uncertainty and change is a bit daunting, but necessary in my personal evolution. The first book of John tells us that God is love, and its opposite is fear, because fear has to everything to do with punishment. So, like the world of black and white that feared color until they began to see how it made life so much better that just “pleasant” I am moving beyond the restrictions of my own personal illusions because, in the past, I was too afraid to see them in another light, another color.
