Living in the Gray and Grey

I think it is both ironic and fitting that gray is the one color that has more than one acceptable spelling.  My favorite color is yellow.  I am tempted to start a trend and spell it “yello,” but that would take away from the power of grey.  And gray does have power.

I actually think most of us live in the grey, but we relent our power in numbers to the black and white.  Black and white are simple, just like up and down or left and right.  With black and white, our minds have very little work to do.  Simply give us the black list or the white list and we know where we stand.

But our minds are more complicated than that and life is more chaotic than that.  Imagine sitting in complete privacy and being given a list of one hundred or more social, political, religious, sociological, et al questions.  And you are guaranteed complete anonymity on your responses.  Heck, you don’t even need to share them.  I think most of us would agree that if you could aggregate all the responses that there would be sprinkled dots all along the linear line of decision-making. 

But when it comes to social media and voting, all the dots in the middle seem to disappear.  They all become huddled either to the left or right extreme.  Is it possible that someone champions homosexuality, but still has questions about the role of nonbinary pronouns?  Are there strong and proud conservatives that are not racists?  Is there a lesbian in the world that objects to transgender athletes competing against her in sports?  Can someone be against abortion personally, but still be compassionate to those who make different choices?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

But we seldom see that in discourse.  Honestly, I feel a bit of fear right now after typing the previous paragraph.  I am gray.  I don’t want to offend up or down.  I don’t want to be judged.  But shouldn’t we speak up more?   Should we be shamed or afraid if 30 of our beliefs are at one inch, while we also believe something at seven inches and another thing at eight?  Conversely, couldn’t we have a bunch of dots at eleven, but a few also at less than three?

Not only can our beliefs be all over the map, I believe that they are all over the map (or ruler).  I believe we are the silent majority.  In crisis communications we tell leadership to speak up or risk others speaking for and about you.  Shape the environment.  But as individuals we can be a bit hypocritical. We are the majority.  Maybe we should speak out more too.

I believe in a strong military, a balanced budget, limited government, and states rights.  I am also a proud advocate of LGBTQIA+, I believe in pro-choice, I support Black Lives Matter, and I understand when individuals choose not to stand for a flag that they do not believe represents them.  I don’t expect a single soul to agree with me on all of these.  In fact, I have changed my mind about some things and will do so again.  But I do believe that conceptually, there are more of us critical thinkers that don’t belong in a box, quieted by the extremes.

I am grey.  I am gray. I am probably a little over 3 inches from the left on average.

I am a bit fearful to post this. But I am no longer silent.