Everything is complex all the time. There are so many perspectives to consider at any given point that I think people forget to acknowledge more than two in a situation. For every black and white situation, there are 30 grey ones. I’m constantly thinking about the moving parts in situations and the possibility that someone could’ve processed a moment completely different than I have. As I’m writing this, the sky is blue. Not the blue it is when the sun rises, and not the midday “sky blue” people typically imagine. It’s slightly darker. If someone took a picture, you could clearly tell the sun was starting to set. While that’s true in Chicago at 8:01 PM in spring, it wouldn’t be anywhere else. In Paris, it’s 3:01 AM, so the sky is even darker. It’s 6:31 AM in India, so I’m sure you could infer what color the sky is. Or could you? The light and air pollution levels are different in Chicago from those in India, which could affect the way the color of the sky is perceived. Already, perspectives exist that bend the validity of what seems to be a simple statement. Even if it’s true to you, truths aren’t always universal. Maybe they’re situational or regional. Everything just depends.
It hadn’t occurred to me that I say “it depends” a lot until my friend Bryanne pointed it out. Every time she asks me a hypothetical question, I go, “It depends.” She asked me the “100 men, 1 gorilla” question, and I said it depends on which men versus what gorilla. As in the strength of the men and the gorilla, and their individual IQ, because that changes everything. I think it’s crazy that most people don’t question things in that way. Everything bends and warps in ways we can’t see at points we don’t know. Circumstances are often unforeseen, and things that appear to be black and white bypass grey to paint themselves in color.
The world doesn’t only exist in antonyms. By trying to force it to be that way, you rob yourself of what it means to be human. To experience the world in its many forms and see through the infinite lenses of the people around you. You don’t allow yourself the seemingly simple luxury of understanding the world past the biased perspective you’ve been shaped to have your entire life.
I love the fact that the world is so complex and full of nuance because it can be anything you can think of and more. That’s why I like English and writing so much. The rules often bend, and when you use them correctly, you can make anything. You can play with sentence structure, rhythm, and anything else you want. It isn’t confined to anything but the limits you put around it and it all depends on you. The world is full of situations that look differently from every perspective. There are an endless amount of angles you can see them from. I love that endlessness. This uncertainty is so certain that it becomes guaranteed. It’s a guaranteed uncertainty that’s waiting to be explored by the curious. It’s there to be explored and appreciated. I think a lot of people ignore the complexity because it’s less dangerous to be “sure”. There’s a false sense of security in failing to think of anything else but your perspective. Not to say we all don’t have our moments, but to actively choose to ignore something so pivotal to human life is asinine to me.
Embrace the complexity of things. It means you’re experiencing life the way you’re designed to.
Embrace the complexity of things. It means you’re experiencing life the way you’re designed to.
