Meditations in an Emergency

Meditations in an Emergency

Black

A meditation on the coolest color

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Rosecrans Baldwin
Mar 08, 2025
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“Arrangement in Grey and Black Number 1” (1871), James McNeill Whistler

Black is the absence or total absorption of light.

It is the color of mourning and officialdom—widows and judges.

For me, black is night. Black is rest. Black is calm.

Black is the best color for cars, leather jackets, sunglasses, and coffee. Combining the four is the coolest cool—fight…

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