What is a thing if not Black or White?
Recently, someone I know was seated in the waiting area of a hospital reading a book, in a bid to kill her boredom when her phone beeped a notification signaling an automatic connection to an available Wi-Fi which apparently was not pass worded. Within seconds, other notifications began flowing in. She held unto her phone, confused. Here she was, completely bored when suddenly her Wi-Fi picks up a private connection. Would using it amount to stealing? Or was this divine supply? Questions plagued her mind as her phone kept buzzing with notifications inviting her into a world of online activity.
They say — sometimes in life, everything is not black or white — yet grey area is a concept I can’t quite grab. What is so grey about using an unsecured private connection you weren’t offered? You either use it or you don’t and one of both could be interpreted as theft, which is really black or white to me. Where then is the grey?
Grey refers to a colour of a neutral tone; neither black nor white which helps me summarize the concept of grey areas — neutrality. When a person tells you “it’s a grey area”, it just means they do not want to take a stand mostly because it is difficult. I think the concept of grey areas is a recliner we opt for when we do not want to make a hard decision. We rock in it and comfort our permissiveness, and say, “oh well, isn’t that one very grey area.”
A few examples of what people call a grey area:
- Your boss asks you for sex in exchange for an overdue promotion
- A life-long friend asks you to tank a case so his wife, also your childhood friend, can get off
- A superior instructs you to forge a document so your client gets the compensation he deserves
- Your sister’s husband, who you are so in love with, is hitting on you — to tell or not to tell (this one really hits the greyness on the head)
I agree that it is not very easy sometimes to determine what is and what isn’t the right choice to make because, based on our freedom of choice we try to rationalize our actions which is why we have Pro- and Anti- everything from Social Media to Life itself. We should however build our capacity for integrity to a point of no questions, compromise or suggestions rather than squirm behind the film of grey area.
All I am saying then is, when those so called grey areas pop up, let Truth colour in. Let the truth of your motives give your action one shade only because, what really is a thing if not black or white?
