Nuance

"Nuance!" is a French expression that is exclaimed in manner of correction to the one who didn't convey his thought with accurate precision.


I reflected on the concept of nuance when my youngest was putting on the golf green. As a five year old, he hasn't yet acquired the required understanding of nuance when he putts. He has to comprehend that the ball must be hit with a perfect amount of strength, not too strong, not too soft: just right. And this varies with every single put.


Nuance is a question of degree. Degrees are what make circles and angles more precise, what makes weather agreeable or disagreeable. One degree less and I can be cold! But nuance is also in the colour.


Like Tiger Woods bending on his uplifted toes to study the line of his put, Ayman Baalbaki, the Lebanese Jackson Pollock, will step back from his flowered canvas, discover the effect of his palette, imagine the nuance and with a dramatic gesture, splatter the "exact" amount of paint with the "exact" bend of his wrist and brush to create the perfect effect.


Nuance makes all the difference! For a radio junkie, the volume dial will assist me to find the perfect balance, the nuanced atmosphere for each song at the exact mood. Volume is nuance and a song will sound different, will ring different emotional chords depending on that.


I can taste the fine nuances of coffee. I can judge its strength, its bitterness, its perfect flavour. Like a good cook who understands the difference of nuance, the choice and perfect amount of spice, the writer will also nuance his voice with the perfect syntax, the selection of adjectives and adverbs, my favourite grammatical words.


Nuance is being in touch with your body, so that you can enhance your athletic prouesse by nuancing your stance, extending a little more, understanding your balance, pursuing your cadence. My riding instructor professes that it is difficult to sense the speed of a galloping horse, that the rider must lead the animal into the exact cadence and thus understand the nuances. My pilates instructor requests that we understand the nuance of the exercises we perform, that we do not go beyond our own range: that we stop at the perfect point where our body does things correctly.


I may not putt with perfection (Tiger doesn't either), I may forget my range in pilates, I may stumble for adjectives when I compose, but I instinctively turn the volume dial to the perfect nuance, I reflect upon the painter's nuanced colours, I quote the author's nuanced wording.


In other words, I appreciate Nuance!