21 April 2010

Whatever happened to gray?

**Note: Brief pet peeve rant ahead.  Feel free to skip it if you’re feeling cranky already.  I have posts with pictures coming up very soon, I promise.  They already exist as title and picture.  They just need, well, those word things**

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like a good clear black and white issue as well as anyone.  I think we can all agree that putting kittens in the microwave is bad; refraining from such behavior is good*.  Black and white.  Easy-peasy.  Everybody happy.  Well except for some psychopath who wants to microwave kittens, but I digress. 

The problem is, real life is rarely that clear-cut.  Unfortunately there are just too dang many folks out there that can’t be bothered by messy details like gray.  It especially bothers me when it becomes Us vs. Them.  Or, add in the anonymity of the interwebs and hop on the crazy train.  Don’t get me wrong, I am always up for a good, well-rounded argument based on crazy little things like, well, reality, facts, or logic.  And while I obviously think that I’m right about everything and everyone should agree with me, I also concede that world would be pretty boring (and probably more than a little frightening) if we were all alike.

Bah.  I truly hope the raw milk bill passes the Wisconsin Assembly and that Governor Doyle signs it promptly.  (And no, this isn’t just about raw milk…I could fill up the entire internet with example after example, but I’ll spare you the agony). Then maybe I can pull my head out of the current events stream for a bit and focus on things that really matter, like cute two-year-olds who love “Indy Done (rhymes with stone)” and “bye-kulls” (Bug got his first two-wheeler, more on that later, I promise) and sweet five-year-olds that bring me dandelion bouquets and clever seven-year-olds who uses his sword fighting technique to play germs and macrophages (Cowboys and Indians is *SO* 1950’s).

*Oops.  Must be crabbier than I thought.  I had “bad” and “good” swapped the first time around.  Glad I caught it before I hit publish!

2 comments:

Namma said...

As far as I can tell, "gray" is an omnipresent part of all of our lives...at least, it is where I live (gray skies, notwithstanding). What may appear be a black-and-white issue to one person (you or me), though, might be a gray issue to another. You're right...the world would be a pretty boring place if we all thought the same about everything. So you're saying, "How about a little boredom, for a change?"

Cindy G said...

I'm extremely relieved that you got the kitten situation straightened out.

Yeah, public discussion about all kinds of things could do with a lot more nuance than we often get.

Now I'm off to scope out that promised pic of young man on bicycle. Betcha it's going to one of those "We can all agree this is cute" things.