Neither black nor white - Grey

As I combed and recombed my hair looking into the mirror to conceal the silvery riches, this fleeting thought ran through my mind. Increasingly, life is more grey than either black or white. Anyone who has observed the silvery grey transformation happening up on my head would instantly understand why this thought even came on. (I wish it were in my head, as in grey matter, rather than on my head) It's suddenly not black or white, just grey.

I can remember how questions were infinitely easier to answer several years ago. It usually was a 'Yes' or 'No'. Yes, that's true or no, it ain't. Yes, that's funny. No, it is not funny. Yes, I like that or No, I hate that. Most often, I notice that that is not the case anymore. Even if the transition from averring and "putting my foot down on something" to "...I guess that depends" was gradual rather than sudden, that realization suddenly struck me that evening when I was combing my hair. I wondered why Rumsfeld or Bush or whoever was asked anything about the "War on Iraq" (or almost any other topic) could never start an answer with "Yes" or "no". In fact, yes or no was not any part of their answer. That might be a different issue, so we'll leave it at that.


Looking back, I was opinionated, one might say. I always thought, with age comes exposure, experience and wisdom. Thinking along those lines, as the sample size of experiences increases, your confidence level should increase, thereby making you sound more confident and making you more opinionated. Perhaps, the confidence level starts high, then decreases before increasing once again, creating a downward bell shape curve, with age/experience on the x-axis.

As we "get seasoned", the numerous variables that are in play come to our focus, and as we scramble to factor all that in to formulate a response to a questions asked, we almost always start with "...I suppose that depends ....." making the response immediately sound less than 100% sure. Unless, we are one of those people who almost never have been wrong. I don't necessarily think I know more than I did before, but I know now that there is infinitely more to know. I even wonder sometimes whether I take all these other factors or variables into consideration, read and re-read the question, just because I don't want to come off as politically incorrect. As I remember it, I never gave political correctness any consideration a decade or so ago. But, I digress.

The word "ceteris paribus" comes to my mind and I find myself thinking "ceter may not be paribus", thereby casting major doubts in the precept used to understand almost all economics principles and more. The variables are important..atleast some variables are! I looked online for what would be the opposite of "ceteris paribus". It was not "ceter ain't paribus" like I had thought. Its called "mutatis mutandis" meaning, "having considered the necessary differences".

As my thoughts wander along the highway that we so casually call "Life", I think about all the seniors in my family. They seem to incline one way or the other in their views. Their answers are not as iffy and don't typically start with "I believe...", "I suppose...", "I guess...." or "...that depends..". I wonder if they have understood something from their experiences that I am yet to unravel. That they somehow have imbibed the meaning of "ceteris paribus". That they somehow have relied on their numerous more experiences in having one view versus the other and they have already taken all factors into consideration before they formed their views. All their experiences, positive or negative, have possibly formed the basis of their opinions or intuition, which in itself is a whole different topic for another blog. Or maybe they just realize that the listener does not want to hear that long convoluted answer? I'll end this blog with the "..maybe".