Essay 5: Description

Here’s something: a stapler seen from about fifteen feet away. I placed it on a desk in the Honors Center lounge. Now how to describe a small, inanimate object and make it sound interesting at the same time? For starters, the stapler is pitch-black. For those not in the know, the table is an oak-brown. The surrounding walls are, I don’t know, yellowish? I know the doors are yellow, but the walls are a different shade; possibly lemon. The ceiling lights paint the room in blinding light, particularly for one who just came in from a cloudy day. For that matter, the stapler looks even darker than previously thought. Aside from the glint of the lamp off the surface, it’s almost mesmerizing. What I mean is, my eyes begin to slide off the darkness. It almost hurts to look at it because my eyes cannot seem to focus. It’s hard to blink because to do so would mean I missed out on something. How can you, you might ask? Well if you stare at a dark surface long enough, your eyes begin to play tricks on you. It’s like you see something from afar; a movement, a slimmer of life along the surface. You cannot tell what is it? Perhaps a trick of the light? You want to see something so bad that your mind makes something up? Either way, you look at it long enough, and you cannot seem to turn away.

Now close up, the stapler looks even less impressive than before. It’s a small, metal object, roughly six inches long. I can see three indentations along the upper half, as if someone had tried to staple it with a second staple and failed miserably. I notice also, for the first time, the silver glint coming off the polished steel of the stapler’s “teeth” so to speak. Now it hurts to look at the glare, which is very apparent at this range. The stapler is not as dark as before. All I see now, other than the glare off the steel teeth, is the wooden table on which it sits. It stands like an unimportant piece of furniture, bland, boring. It seemed so much more interesting from afar, like that tourist spot that everyone says you must go to. When you see if from far away, it looks incredible. Then you get up close. Not what you thought it would be. Not that you’d see advertisements for the black stapler anywhere on the Queen campus, but the comparison is sound. I don’t like seeing the stapler up close. It’s not as dark as it used to be. It does not play with my eyes like it once did. Best to keep my distance.