Shades of Gray

Today a good friend sent me an email trying to explain her political beliefs, which apparently lean to the extreme right. I’ve always tried to be open-minded and have never fallen to the extreme left or the extreme right of any issue. While I do fall more to the left than the right, to me, there are always circumstances to consider and I have a really hard time saying something is either black or white. Even things I am really passionate about are never black or white.

To quote the 1986 C. Thomas Howell movie Soul Man and the song Shades of Gray, “Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray.” That’s pretty much how I see the world and the issues we all face – in shades of gray. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around radical thoughts one way or the other. And frankly, radicals and conspiracy theorists scare me. A lot. For example, how can killing a man in a church because he is an abortion doctor be the right thing to do? If you oppose abortion and think that it is murder, how can murdering someone to prove your point be right? I don't get it.

Don’t get me wrong – I am all for questioning the status quo and ensuring that our leaders are on the best path for all of us. And sometimes I wish I could see things in black and white; it would make things easier. The Billy Joel lyrics below sum up how I feel:
“Shades of grey wherever I go
The more I find out the less that I know
Black and white is how it should be
But shades of grey are the colors I see.”