The Moral Grey Zone
As I grew up, I learned more and more that life is not always black and white. Usually, people, events, etc., are not all bad and not all good. While this is so true, it can also make things much more complicated. It’s a lot harder to write people off… just because they did something (of course it depends what) that made you mad, there is always that part of the person that isn’t all bad. As I am sure most of you have, I have experienced this issue many times in my life, and have had to make some very difficult decisions because of it.
When I was a young kid, I absolutely loved the show Full House, everything about it, no questions asked. This show ended in 1995, which would have made me 6 or 7 years old at the time, so I was definitely still in the black/white stage. Then, I heard the show was coming back and could not have been happier.. my dream had come true! But, as I am older now, this news prompted me to do research, watch trailers, what have you. Quickly, I found out that there is quite a bit of controversy out there about Candace Cameron Bure, the actress who plays DJ Tanner-Fuller on the show. Naturally, as I am a gay woman, I had some concerns about her and her brother’s very religious views. Even though I know how childish this sounds, the truth is that knowing all of this made me briefly a little less eager to watch both shows.
“grey area” noun “an undefined situation or subject that does not seem to conform to known categories or rules; an intermediate area or topic that is not clearly defined” ->www.dictionary.com
Thankfully, I quickly got over this pouting period, by reminding myself of my ‘grey area’ wisdom. I knew I could be my higher self hehe. Just because the actress had some values I didn’t agree with does not at all effect her acting, or even mean that she’s a bad person. Today, I came across another article about the actress that caught my attention. From this, I found out that she has had some struggles of her own in her life, which she learnt from and now makes sure that her own children are protected and brought up to be healthy. This new information made me realize once again that people are definitely not all bad or all good… she has some controversial beliefs (which I definitely don’t agree with, of course), but that doesn’t mean she needs to be completely written off. She has still done things that can be respected. I put a link to this article, so I won’t get into the details. This is only one example of the ‘grey area’ concept and how it’s affected me. There are oh so many more, that are a much bigger part of my life.
This concept has come up a lot in my life with friends, family, and even coworkers. But, I really find that reminding myself of this one thing can really help. Whenever I want to complain about someone’s actions, I often stop and try to remind myself that this person may deserve a second look. I could get into a lot more stories, but I will try not to bore you with them… yet
Are there any specific situations when this has helped you? Or any time(s) when it made things more difficult?