Purity - Dec 26 2025

 

Purity

Dec 26 2025



Waking up to freshly fallen snow,

and shielding my eyes 

from its painful brightness 

I gaze out at a world remade;

all its imperfections concealed

beneath a smooth mantle of white,

its surface flowing like water

over polished river rock.

Truly virgin snow,

never touched

let alone violated.

An ethereal kind of beauty

because we know it won’t last.

Like the bright-eyed girl with coltish legs

whose graceful pirouettes

look effortless.

And who seems all the more precious

because we know her innocence

is not for long.

And a delicate beauty as well.

Like a ceramic vase

from some ancient Chinese dynasty,

its porcelain so translucent

your hand shows through.

Perhaps this is why we conflate whiteness with purity,

and, by extrapolation

never question terms like black-hearted

black market

black sheep,

black comedy

blackmail

blackball.

The wicked witch

whom we can only imagine in black.

Of course, fresh snow is not a morality play

it’s simple physics;

water molecules

in their crystal state

reflecting the full spectrum of light.

So whiteness means nothing;

the weather gods 

are not passing judgment.

No, it’s up to us to judge the world

and I prefer it like this —

all its defects hidden

at least for now.

An illusion of purity I know can never exist

in a beleaguered world 

so in need of fixing.

But let myself imagine

for the few hours it lasts.

This happened today:  so pure white and untouched it was a postcard illusion of a white Christmas. 

But why, when one thinks of perfection and purity, is it always virgin white? 

Is virginity some sort of ideal? Or are we implying not only that sex is dirty and unspeakable, but demonizing female sexuality in particular? Because it seems to me that virginity is only prized in patriarchal and honour cultures, neither of which I find admirable. 

Why am I conditioned to see this beautiful white snow and immediately think of purity? If snow absorbed light instead of reflecting it — an indifferent circumstance of disinterested physics — would an equally untouched expanse of pure blackness inspire the same feeling?

And perhaps we should examine the subliminal racism in the way we use language. Why is black magic presumed to be evil, black comedy dark? Is it right that we all unthinkingly know what the white witch and black witch represent in the Wizard of Oz?