When Life Goes Grey

Some­where between black and white are hun­dreds of shades of grey (also spelled “gray” — so depict­ing drab that it does not mat­ter which way it is spelled). Mid-life is more about falling into the bland pit than about grey hair. Nature even reminds us of how it hap­pens to ani­mals. The old dog asleep in the cor­ner, with pro­gres­sively gray­ing hair around his nose, does not get very excited and may even just sit and watch while a thief cleans out your house.

Rou­tine, tedium, rep­e­ti­tion, dulling out — are grey terms. Novel expe­ri­ences are red, orange, blue, or pur­ple. Cul­tures that are fully alive are also alive with color. Vis­i­tors to the old Soviet Union say that what they found most strik­ing was the lack of color in that social­ist world. Con­for­mity had replaced cre­ativ­ity. Con­trol through intim­i­da­tion led peo­ple to live as if invis­i­ble — even blue jeans were con­sid­ered sus­pect. For sev­enty years, life went grey. Only the Krem­lin had any color, but that paint was from a for­mer — much more glorious — era.

Emo­tions, moods, and col­ors have their own dance. Look through your closet. How much inten­sity do you find? I like black, white, and maroon or red. I feel the same way about pas­tels as I do grey. Those are shades for peo­ple that can­not make up their minds or com­mit to intense endeav­ors. I once heard it said that, “If you are wear­ing brown while speak­ing make sure you are talk­ing to God, because no one else is listening.”

So life has gone grey for you! This would be a good time to break things, toss stuff, or buy some­thing out­ra­geous. Put some emo­tional color into your world. Make some rad­i­cal changes for no jus­ti­fi­able rea­son. Shock your­self back to life. As the Nike com­mer­cial says, “Just Do It!”