50 Shades of Gray

Warning: This is not about a graphic novel.  Or anything weird like that.   If you are saddened by this news I apologize, but that isn't really my genre.  

Some people say the world is black and white.  Things are right. Things are wrong.   It is yes.  It is no.  It is there.  It is not.  There is happy.  There is sad.  Everything is flat.  There is no definition.  Like a coloring book, what is laid before you, is all there is.  What you see is what is there.  Nothing is deep.  Nothing is more.  Nothing has layers.  Nothing has a hidden meaning.  Black and White, lines on a page.

Other people believe that there are many shades of gray to fill the black and white lines. Something can be both right and wrong.  It could be yes and no.  It could be both happy and sad. If something is a little darker here and a tad lighter there then you have demintion.  Thing take shape. Things have more than one meaning.  There is layer.  There is dept.  There is truth.   Black, White, and Gray....shapes on a page.

I believe that life is more than that.  How could something so beautiful, so real, so deep, so meaningful, something so layered and complex be composed of only two colors and their variations.  No matter how hard you try you can only come up with black, white, and gray. That is like taking a pencil and sketching the world.  No matter how skilled you are, no one would ever believe that is was real.  A snapshot of time.  Because life is in color.  You have green, blue, red, orange, yellow, brown, and purple.  Life is a place full of color, and no one would do it justice by calling it 50 shades of gray.

A woman is working out at the gym.  You see her every time you go there.  You do the smile and wave to a friendly face then you get on with your workout.  You leave, go home, watch some stupid show on the TV never giving second thought to the woman.  How could you know that her husband left her 2 years ago and she believes that if she was just one size smaller, just a bit thinner, then he might just have stayed.  She works hard and with all her workout routines and trainers she has no time for the boyfriend who is calling every night just to tell her how beautiful she is.  Not black, not white, not gray.  Life in all it's dept and color.

A man stands on a corner of a street playing a guitar.  You walk by and whisper under your breath, get a job.  Little do you know that he had a job.  In fact he was a millionaire.  Rich and powerful, he was.  But when his son died of a suicide.  The man put down his pen and his paper.  He picked up his sons guitar left standing in his room and played.  He plays everyday in memory of his son gone too soon. Not black, not white, not gray.  Life in all it's dept and color.

You get flipped off on the way home from your daughters ballet lessons.  It wasn't your fault.  You had to get over for the biker.  Rather get a little closer to that dotted line than hit a man on the road.  You grumble a bit about the rudeness then go on you merry little way.   You couldn't know that the man driving that blue truck was just starting to drive again after an accident that had him off the roads and out of action for almost three years.  His brother, the one who flipped you off, was riding in the passenger seat cheering him on.  Being the over protective bigger brother.  He flips you off when you infringe on his lane.  His brother can't screw this up. Not black, not white, not gray.  Life in all it's dept and color.

Life is so much deeper than we all think it to be.  We have been told about the world, but how many of us truly know.  We can't.  Every person has a story.  Every person has layers.  A past, a present, and a future.  We have all been somewhere and are going somewhere.  We pass people everyday not thinking a the dept that lies around us.  We forget that each person is dealing with there own demons.  This may be because we have been taught to see the world in blacks, whites, and grays.  We have forgotten the patterns that lie somewhere beneath.

So, you might be wondering what all this humbo jumbo is about. And if you are reading this I congratulate you on staying with me.  I just want people to see deeper.  To k now that there is more to a story.  To know that everyone has there own story, a life they are living.  Try to think of the world in color.  in all it's glory.  Don't settle for a picture in black and white.  That would be boring.  There is a reason people paint in color.  It adds dept, it adds meaning.  It is true. .  Not black, not white, not gray.  Life in all it's dept and color.