The Black Dot

Last week, I left this blog with a question “what do you see?”

When I was doing my 3rd year of law, things got more interesting. From the questions “what is the law”, we moved to questions “what is law”. Certainly a drastic change of how we think was needed in the last year of law school (it is also a reason why I liked doing law – there is no straight answer!).

So, there I was – attending the very first class on the third year and we had a very young lecturer taking our class. He explained to us on the overview structure of the studies for the 3rd year, what we need to do, etc and before he left, he left us with an assignment. The “question” was on a blank A4 paper which had nothing but a black dot right in the middle of the paper.

The assignment looked simple enough but it has it’s own challengers – write about what you see on the paper. The assignment must be at least 3,000 words and can be on any topics (but must relate back to the black dot) and it must be handed over within a week.

Those with a lack imagination or creativity seemed doomed from the start. After several failed starts to do the assignment (and of course lazy delays), I gave it a rest and went to watch television, oblivious to the fact that I only had a day to finish the assignment.

Then I had an inspiration and immediately went down to write the assignment and completed it on the same night.

What I did was start the assignment with this quote:-

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

The above set the premise of my direction of thoughts when talking about the black dot. For me, the black dot was the twilight zone – for the black has interrupted the tranquillity of the white.

The black dot was not the norm; twilight zone was not the norm too. It shared the same characteristics.

I must say that this assignment was one of the tricky assignments that I had during my 3 years of doing law – because it was on an open topic and left purely to one’s imaginations. Having an open mind certainly helped me to pull myself through 3rd year of law school.

Any interesting views?