Shades of Gray

I volunteer once a week at the business office of a local volunteer organization, helping with clerical tasks, taking phone calls from those in need of help and serving as the IT computer guy.   I started doing this when I was on the organization’s board and responsible for liaison with the paid office staff consisting of one full time employee, we’ll call her S.   S runs the office very efficiently and the organization would be lost without her, although not everyone knows it.   At any rate, S is very direct and honest with people, which sometimes comes across as brusque.   I, on the other hand, find it refreshing.   A year after I started volunteering there, I became Chair of the board and her de facto boss, something that took us both a while to adapt to.   Last week, we were talking about the surprising characteristics we’ve seen emerge in board members when they became Chair.   I swallowed hard and asked what she’d seen  in me.   You have a hard time making a decision, Bud, she said.   You have a tendency to waffle back and forth.

Now, at the time there was a particular decision she wanted my support on, so I suspect that was the source of her observation, but I have to admit, she’s right.  I tend to see both sides of most situations and rarely see in black and white.   I see most things in Shades of Gray.   That’s why I’m not an animal rights person or a vegetarian even though I love animals.   It’s why I don’t think white sugar is poison or Saccharin an anathema.   Though I’m conservative, I don’t like Rush Limbaugh all that much and although people are inclined to think I’m spiritual, I’m not religious.  I can be ambivalent about capitol punishment while inclined to think it’s necessary sometimes.   I dislike Sean Penn’s politics and off-screen persona but respect his effort in Haiti.   Though seeing a race horse fall at Santa Anita was upsetting and I know the sport needs reforms, I’m likely to attend a race again and unlikely to call for an end to thoroughbred racing.  The line between helping and rescuing (or enabling) a loved one isn’t a fine line, it’s a fuzzy one.    Shades of Gray.

Does this mean I’m wishy-washy, like Charlie Brown in Peanuts?   I’m willing to admit to the possibility but only for a moment.   I’m inclined to believe that in most issues, there are arguments on both sides and that when someone chooses black or white, they essentially eliminate; (1) the possibility that anyone who doesn’t share their opinion will listen to them and, (2) the possibility that they will learn anything.  That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in right or wrong, just that many situations we encounter in this life contain some of each.  And the things I do see in black and white, I believe in passionately.

How about you?   Are you Black and White or Shades of Gray?

Explore posts in the same categories: perspectives

Tags: opinions, perspectives, philosophy, postaday2011, psychology, spirituality

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.