Living in the Gray

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November 6, 2012 by themommahen

The rallying cry for the “silent majority” to get out and vote seems to come from the most vocal and vociferous individuals and entities. I can only hope that means there are others, like me, who don’t always live in black and white, but reside comfortably in the gray somewhere between the two extremes.

Don’t get me wrong, extremes are a necessary part of life. And I actually envy those who speak with unquestioned certainty on issues and bang their fists in punctuation on a point near and dear to their hearts. Extremes force us to choose, force us to question, force us to think, even especially those of us who live in the muck of the gray, because it can’t really always be either/or, can it? And I can’t be the only one who’s so tired of all the yelling, yelling, yelling. Seriously, turning on any cable news, radio talk or even opening up certain publications just makes my head pound.

Perhaps I’m naïve and Pollyanna-ish (and I’ve certainly been told that before) but if that’s what living in the gray makes me, then fine. I’ll continue living here, uncharacteristically silent for my personality, reading and researching and delving into both sides of an issue to get to an understanding deeper than the easy-to-grasp-and-put-into-a-soundbyte-extremist POVs, and I’ll talk and debate with discretion with others who won’t browbeat me for questioning, wavering, skepticizing (yes, I made that up) or, gasp being unsure of where I stand on something because, to me, almost all political, social and economic issues have layers of complexity to them.

And then I’ll make my voice heard with my vote. Because the election booth is where we’re all equal, isn’t it? No matter how silent or amplified your voice is up to that point, as soon as you walk into the booth and mark your ballot, all voices speak with the same volume.

So please vote. No matter what you look like, what you think, where you live, who you are it’s what makes us American. It’s what makes us equal.