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Living in the age of convenience

taiwanese grass jelly herb (3.1/5) (cooling, bitter mint sensation that feels light but has an intense climate. apparently, when steeped with agar agar or gelatin, it can thicken into a jelly. however, i would prefer to drink the herb as is.) "And surely you have seen, in the darkness of the most innermost rooms of these huge buildings, to which sunlight never penetrates, how the gold lead of a sliding door or screen will pick up a distant glimmer from the garden, then suddenly send forth an ethereal glow, a faint golden light cast into the enveloping darkness. How in such a dark place, gold draws so much light to itself is a mystery to me. Modern man, in his well-lit house, knows nothing of the beauty of gold, but those who lived in the dark houses of the past were not merely captivated by its beauty, they also knew its practical value, for gold in these dim rooms, must have served the function of a reflector. Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty." Tanizaki'...
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Cornflower Blue

Today in lecture I decided to look down at my prized 50's vintage silk suit. A shy beam of light from the 4 o'clock sun kissed my skirt and produced an iridescent hue of cornflower blue. Cornflower blue. Isn't our nominating system for the specification of colors so interesting? Why is it that I look at a sun's haze and think of amber? Why is a leather cover on a piano bench a burnt sienna? Why is a windowsill cilantro plant a shamrock green? 

It is inevitable for humans to be so pathetically intense and our qualitative observations of the world's hues are no exception. We always need context to understand, a comparison of another physical entity to help with comprehending a marvelous purple or a deep black. Desire is no light thing and our desire to equate linguistic terms with worldly acknowledgement is heavy with intent. 

However, language has its limits, and sometimes I see certain things that feel so undefined, incapable of commodification. I think it's okay to not have a name for things sometimes, to not know how beauty can exist within an object. That's okay. Appreciation is wonderful because it can be felt without identification.





 

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