Enjoy my writing and art? Want to see more? Support my work on Patreon or donate with PayPal.
Image: Public Domain, Morguefile
This goes along with the article of “Dark doesn’t mean evil”. There are so many different kinds of people, and so many kinds of behavior, that people can be confused. People can also have the mistaken idea that there is a right and wrong way regarding things that are subjective. This goes more into that line of thought.
A recent conversation with one of my friends got me thinking once again about all the variances in humanity, and the sad view that all is black and white. I mentioned in a previous post my trouble with people who equate “dark” with “negative”. As stated there, it is a much more complex issue. Few things in this world are simply black or white.
There isn’t just gay or straight, there’s bi, open, and other variances. There isn’t just man and woman, there’s androgyne, transgender, transsexual and more. Good and evil are subjective. Right and wrong are subjective. There’s not just positive and negative, there are a million shades of gray in everything we see and do, and everything we are.
Even Pagans, who claim to be so open and accepting, become mired in their own perceptions of black and white. Even they are not as open to the shades of gray as they claim to be or believe they are.
Because of those shades of gray, and the fact that many people do not understand them or believe they exist, some of us find life rather tricky.
Abby on NCIS is a good example of that gray area. She appears “Goth”. She has her dark side, likes goth music, wears the attire, but at the same time she is chipper, lively, and incredibly intelligent with a highly respected job. She is not just one thing. But a cursory assessment would lead some to put her in a little black box of the negative, evil goth. Life is not that simple.
The difficulty of gray is also apparent in modern relationships. If you sleep with someone who’s not your spouse, it’s cheating and therefore wrong. But many have open relationships, where there is love, respect, and open communication. And what about sleeping with someone of your own gender? That makes you gay. But what if you find pleasure in human physical relations regardless of gender, and find labels of gender and orientation irrelevant?
Simply put, people really need to see that there is nothing simple about humanity. If you don’t understand all the variant shades that exist, please, ask someone. Educate yourself. And even if it’s not for you, accept that it exists, and does not make other people wrong, only different.
