Life: A Big Box Of Crayons

Have you ever noticed that for some people life is black or white, right or wrong, good or bad? There is no gray. There is no “maybe.” Why is that? I was taught from the time I could wet myself, that life is full of colors and they’re all beautiful. Man, I loved those great big Crayon boxes. You know the ones with all those colors with strange names. I never knew there could be so many different shades of blue.

I never knew there could be so many shades of right. Every eye in the world sees a different color of right and a different shade of wrong. Writers and armchair philosophers banter about all those different shades and no one is ever really right, or wrong. Every human believes her or his view is the one from on high. I guess we couldn’t survive if we all shared the same view, be nice to try though.

My country, U.S.A., is sliced right down the middle on right and wrong, right and left, black and white. Whatever happened to gray? What ever happened to the “bell” in bell curve? Who took the Easter Bunny out of Easter? What? Sorry, I am straying off the literary trail.

There does seem to be one thing that our country can agree on? God. Our country is a religious country and almost everyone believes in a God (about 96%). Hence, you would think that since most people agree there is a God, they could agree upon other things, but they can’t. People can’t agree on abortion, death sentences, wars, sin, Santa Claus’ skin color, or what aftershave to use. They can’t agree on politics, cholesterol levels, sexual preferences, or good music. It seems that no one wants to see all the colors in the large Crayon box. They tend to stick with the basic six or eight colors in the small Crayon box of life.

Let me try the scenario thing here: The three-strikes-you’re-out law. A heroin user gets caught for the “third” time trying to steal a television from his neighbor’s house in order to buy some dope, and is given the maximum sentence (in California –25 years) for his crime. Black-and-white folks would say, “It’s the law and that’s it.” Believers-in-the-gray might say, “Hold it, we’re not addressing the real problem here.” Believers-in-the-large-Crayon-Box might say, “How about rehabilitation or how about getting clean needles for this guy, or changing our approach to illegal drug use.”

This of course is an arguable issue. Many will take the stand that there has to be an absolute in all things; otherwise, the world would be chaotic, and there is truth to that stance. However, does there have to be black-and-white in all things? Life as we know it is not an absolute…except to mathematicians. Many of our great thinkers in this life saw colors: Gandhi, Jefferson, King, Kennedy, and hundreds of others.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m taking my large box of Crayons to the bedroom and taking my nap.