SGG explains his work, "Give Me Black"

To desire Light one should walk in darkness. To desire health one should endure sickness. To attain the pure, one should taste the impure. One should ask for black so that one may appreciate white. One should lust for that which is not sacred so that one may long for that which is sacred.

This is the path. From darkness one walks into Light. Through suffering one discovers the joy that cannot fade away. It is the knowledge of filth that paves the way for the knowledge of the pure.

There is no other path. One should not walk away from trouble. One should not avoid the test. That temptation should be resisted is the ultimate requirement. Nevertheless to resist temptation one requires strength. That strength comes from the fall and the knowledge that comes thereof. He who rises after a fall is mighty indeed.

No one born of man can avoid the fall. A man is already fallen even before he is born. From the moment of birth to that of death, a man aspires to rise and reverse the effect of the fall. Whether he succeeds in this is not as significant as his attempt to recover. This is the exercise of faith - to persevere in difficult circumstances and to hope when it seems hopeless.

If one ends one's life as a victor over sin, one will have received the just wages for a lifetime of spiritual struggle. That reward is surely from God, as no one else can give it.

Here then is the irony. The promise of comfort lies in the struggle, the coming of hope is suggested in the despair and the burgeoning of faith occurs in the dark waters of doubt.

- Samuel Godfrey George