Clarity

I am always impressed when anyone makes a statement that seems so clear and precise that it sticks not only in my head but in my heart.  A good example is the first time I heard "Now, go and sin no more" or "I will fight no more forever".  I felt that way about "A well disciplined child will have scars".  Melville wrote it for Bartleby, "I would prefer not to".  There is little ambiguity when you read a sign that says "Proceed at your own risk!" and I always proceed in those situations.  Clarity does not judge or temper, it simply enlightens. 

My favorite definition for clarity is "freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity".   Please do not confuse this post with my desire to be clear, distinct or unambiguous.  It is a goal of mine to be understood clearly although there are times when I am intentionally not using clarity.  Another's imagination can be richer and more descriptive given the chance to fill in the gaps of vagueness.  "There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life".  Clear, simple and direct.  In some ways, the definition for clarity is clarity.  I am getting dizzy thinking about it.

My grandson has a response anytime he is asked to pick up his toys or clean up his mess.  He simply states "I can't!"  I figure he knows that "I do not want to" possess too much clarity and will not fly but if he physically can not do what is requested, he is clear for takeoff.   Clarity from a five year old makes me laugh.  Van Gogh had a clarity in his paintings.  Yellow was yellow, blue was blue, the ambiguity was in the viewers imaginative mix of light and color  not his color scheme.  "One" may be the loneliest number that you will ever do but "No" properly used possesses the clarity of the ages.  The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae said "Na" when asked to step aside.  Their position was clear.  When William Wallace mooned the forces of the Sixth Earl of Surrey during the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, the clarity could be seen shimmering off the buttocks  of several thousand Scots.  Even though my grandson is mistaken about his ability to comply, he is very clear about his intentions. 

Sometimes, especially in the mountains about Cedar City, the air is so clear it hurts to breath in and the sky too bright to look upon.  I feel the same when I hear or see clarity.   The story of Jonah and the Whale possesses a clarity all its own.  God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh to spread His name.  Jonah did not want to because the Ninevites were ruthless, lawless, baby killing, stump training bastards.  Jonah heads in the opposite direction.  Somehow he ends up on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea.  That boat sinks and a whale (giant something or other) swallows him and spits him out on the shore and God repeated his wishes, "Go to Nineveh".  That is clarity.