Here’s a live one-time TV Special I’d like to see.
Start with 2 separate rooms, each with an equal number of die-hard liberals and die-hard conservatives. Come up with a bunch of fake, important sounding issues from the arenas of politics, worldwide concerns, religion, human rights, safety, education, etc. Make sure they cover a good range of minor impact to major impact topics.
Randomly divide the issues into two groups. In Room 1, tell the participants that the Group 1 issues are liberal backed and the Group 2 issues are conservative backed. In Room 2, tell the participants that the Group 2 issues are liberal backed and the Group 1 issues are conservative backed. Really sell it. Drop all the big names. Ellen, Rush, Oprah, Dubya. Then ask everyone in both rooms their opinions. Now sit back and watch the end of civilization as we know it.
If done right, I would hope it to reveal the equally embarrassing traits of blind faith and blind rage. I would hope it to reveal for all to see that something is way out of whack and a whole heap of people, way way way more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, are suddenly judge, jury, and executioner for any one of a billion different causes.
All for a lack of Gray Area.
Nothing is completely Black or White (yikes, that sounds kinda Black or White). Let me put it another way. If you truly have the ability to stand back and see things from not only your perspective but from the perspective of others, nothing can possibly be as Black or White as it originally seems. I’m convinced everything is mostly Gray Area. Even the term Gray Area has Gray Area. I’m sure someone out there will tell me it should be Grey Area. And they’re probably right. Bernie Taupin and Elton John thought so, hence that spelling in the title of this post. I make no claims of being right or better or smarter or anything. All I know is I have a big knot in my stomach and common sense seems to be on permanent vacation. I’m afraid to blink now that people in droves are going ballistic over every single syllable that is uttered from sea to shining sea.
In Coven’s song One Tin Soldier, the chorus goes: “Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end”. Easy now. Easy. This is not a slam on religion. My point is a lot of people are living these lyrics and replacing the word “heaven” with any number of well-intentioned but incredibly nuanced subjects. And for me, the most striking word in the chorus is “can”. Again, it takes all the Gray Area out of it. There’s no chance the Valley People won’t be justified in the end.
Extrapolated out, you get examples like:
Do it in the name of school kids.
Do it in the name of equal rights.
Do it in the name of unborn babies.
Do it in the name of Allah.
Do it in the name of saving the earth.
Do it in the name of Harambe.
Now I hope and trust most people mean well. I’m sure Harambe was a heck of a gorilla. But as soon as you favor Harambe in any way, the lack of Gray Area shouts out to the world that you hate kids. You’re a racist. You’re sexist. You condone murder. You’re an Islamophobe. You want all the ice caps to melt. It’s not that simple. It’s not that cut and dry. It’s not that Black and White.
So People – Please bring a little Gray Area into your lives. It’s Ok. It may sting a bit, so let’s start small:
Root for the Cubs AND the White Sox. Even if you don’t know what baseball is.
Only say you’ll “CONSIDER” moving to Canada the next time you are asked to comment on something you are 100% sure will never happen. Sometimes that long shot comes in.
Once you start to Embrace The Gray, you can step up in class. There are a lot of variations to this next one.
Understand that people who like something don’t automatically hate everything else. People who hate something don’t automatically like everything else. For example: I like Paul McCartney. I like Michael Jackson. I hate “Say Say Say”.
Here’s a toughie. Acknowledge that your opinion on any given matter may not be the only one in the universe that counts. And the kicker is you don’t automatically have to hate the person who has that difference of opinion.
And here’s the toughest one of all. Disclaimer: I don’t have tinfoil on my head as I’m writing this. Ok. Here we go. Take the media with a heavy heavy dose of salt. The media’s job is to sell advertising space. The media’s job is to get you to click on the link that gushes “You won’t believe what she looks like now!” Somewhere down the list, far down the list, maybe even on another list like a grocery list or something, is the duty of the media to try and provide fair, balanced, truthful information to the people consuming that information. Their whole business model is founded on drilling Black and White into our heads on a consistent, relentless basis. Gray doesn’t sizzle. Gray doesn’t pay the bills. But Gray is exactly what’s needed. Unfortunately, they are perfectly happy fanning the flames of this 24/7 Black and White rhubarb.
So let’s all trust us some Gray. Acknowledge the Gray. Use the Gray, Luke. For the greater good, hopefully, eventually. Until then, untying the anaconda in my gut is as good as I can hope for.
** Insignificant Trivia Question #2 **
Who was originally slated to sing the opening lines of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” before they were inexplicably sung by Paul Young, himself the answer to that age old question…”Who?”