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We have another post today by Eugene Terekhin, the man and the mind behind the publication Philosophy of Language.
Eugene is a regular contributing writer to The BoldBrush Letter.
This post originally appeared on Philosophy of Language here
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Encountering The Living White: Gandalf’s Path of Wisdom
Once, Gandalf and Saruman had a curious exchange about the nature of the color white. Saruman the White insisted that white is only the beginning – something to be broken and used.
‘‘White!’’ he sneered. ‘‘It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.’’ The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf wisely retorted:
‘‘In which case it is no longer white.”
For Saruman, breaking white into many colors was perfectly acceptable, because in breaking it he believed he gained control over it. For Gandalf, however, a broken white was no longer white. As he explained:
“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
Why?
Because wisdom is holistic. When we seek to control things, we break them into constituent elements, study them, and then exploit them to our advantage. We assume we know something only when we have dissected it. Yet, according to Gandalf, whatever we break, we lose.
White is no longer white when it is broken. Nature is no longer Nature when it is reduced to fragments.
Ironically, Saruman the White broke the color white and ceased to be white. Gandalf the Gray, by embracing white as a whole, became Gandalf the White. We truly know things only when we encounter them as they are – not when we break them into pieces.
To know white, we must encounter white. But what is white? The mind doesn’t know – it seeks to break, dissect, and analyze. The heart knows – it seeks to relate, to behold, and participate. Gandalf the Gray became Gandalf the White because he had encountered the Living White – a powerful symbol of Divine light. What does it mean to encounter the Living White?
The disciples encountered it on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus’s
“clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” Mark 9:3
They didn’t analyze what that dazzling White was. They didn’t reduce it to definitions. They simply embraced it, absorbed it, participated in it – and knew it through an encounter.
Saruman the White never truly knew the White because he had never encountered it. Eventually, he lost it because he had broken it in order to control it. Gandalf the Gray became Gandalf the White because he let go of all control and was purified by the Divine light.
Participation is the highest wisdom. You cannot participate in a world broken into pieces. You can only control it – up to a point.
Serendipitously, Tolkien wrote in his Mythopoeia,
“Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind…”
The White can either be broken or refracted. When broken and exploited, it ceases to be white. When refracted to be encountered, it remains the Living White – and creates a symphony of hues and colors. When a true sub-creator encounters the Living White, it passes right through them and gets refracted to many hues without being diminished.
All who participate in the Living White shine with its refracted light. They become sub-creators, each bearing and refracting the White in his or her own way. He who “knows” white becomes white because knowing is becoming. Just as it says,
“When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone.” Exodus 34:30
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I liked the comparison to nature: a broken white is no longer white m, like nature broken apart is no longer nature.