Shedding Our Black and White Glasses: or, Seeing the World in Technocolor

A friend of mine said the following once.  I have thought a lot about it over the years, and this post is what I would say to him if I had the chance. 

I used to believe things were black and white; now nothing is clear to me.

This might sound trite and odd, at first, but that is the first step, in my opinion, to the possibility of beginning to see a wonderfully complex, beautiful, vibrant, exhilarating creation in which real growth and enlightenment can occur.

There are two movies that capture visually what I mean: "The Wizard of Oz" and "What Dreams May Come".

When Dorothy opens the house door after landing in Oz and the movie suddenly goes from black and white to full color, and when Robin Williams' character sees the watercolor landscape world - that is what excites me about the elimination of black and white thinking. I have found great awe and grandeur and expansiveness within Mormonism that would have remained hidden to me, personally, if I had not shed my black and white glasses. My "testimony" or "faith" is stronger now than it's ever been, and seeing a "pure Mormonism" that is not black and white has been the major cause of that additional strength.

I still see through my glass, darkly, but at least now I see many things in technicolor - and I really do believe there is a vitality and depth of color in "pure Mormonism" that I haven't found elsewhere.