Black & White

I keep getting told that life is not black and white, that I can be too judgmental – that things are not that cut and dried. That the Good is not discrete. That the Good and the Bad hold hands, that they blur into a vague grey.

Crap.

Actually, life looks grey because it’s made up of many black and white dots. Like dots on a newspaper. Black and white events, black and white moments. Moments where you do what’s right and moments where you do something recklessly selfish, or moments where you stand by and let something happen.

Just because there are a lot of those moments doesn’t mean we’re any less responsible for choosing the side we’re with at that moment.

If we confuse issues, then we’re out of focus, and rather than see all the black and white moments, we see a blurred continuum of maybe’s and greys.

When we do that, we are shirking our main duty.

It is on us to perceive with clarity and empathy, it is on us to ascertain which side bears the burden of the good, and it is on us to take that side and share with it that burden.

Nothing grey about any of that.