Is There a Gray Area?
With a quote from "The Light of All That Falls," book 3 of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington
In “The Light of All that Falls,” book 3 of the Licanius trilogy by James Islington, the main character Davian is working to help a man who in the past has been known to do terrible evil, but who is now presenting himself as repentant. Davian’s friend Raeleth agrees to help because he trusts Davian, but he offers an insightful warning as a caveat:
“…Your association with him must not compromise what you think is right.” Raeleth held Davian’s gaze steadily, “Even if you think it would mean escape, or saving lives, or…” He gestured, “Given what he has done, even if he has changed, I fear what he will ask of you. Evil men rarely convince others to their side by asking them to perform dark deeds for no good reason. They will always start with the lightest shade of gray. They so often use what seems like a good cause.”
“You don’t think it’s possible that a little gray is what’s needed sometimes?” asked Davian.
Raeleth snorted, “No!” He said severely, “Gray is the color of cowardice and ignorance and sheer laziness Davian. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. If someone is not clearly right or wrong then it bears actually figuring out which one it is! Not dismissal into some nebulous third category. If you have a basis for your morality, a foundation for it, then there will always be an answer. And if you do not, then trying to decide whether anything is right or wrong is an exercise in futility and irrelevance.”
Many of us will justify some of our choices as being neither good nor bad just gray, i.e. it doesn’t matter whether I do this or not it is just a neutral choice. But all choices we make influence our character and often the people around us. Is it a neutral choice to listen to this particular song or does it improve our mood and uplift us, moving us to do good things? Is it neutral to play video games instead of helping out around the house?
The nuance is not always in the action itself, but rather in the timing of the action. Maybe there are times when one type of music can help you de-stress and relax when you need it, but at other times you need to listen to something else. Maybe video games are an active good in building camaraderie with friends but when taken in large doses become a selfish and pernicious poison in our more important relationships. If we have doubts about whether the activity or choice is good or evil it is far better to give it the attention it deserves and figure it out. Often, those hesitations themselves are our conscience telling us that there is in fact something better we could be doing with our time. Other times, we may be preventing ourselves from being a great aid to other people. We may through self-doubt convince ourselves that some act of charity isn’t really that important and would just be silly, depriving ourselves and others of the benefits of service.
In every act, we should strive to live life on purpose. We will all fall short of this ideal at times and live by impulse, but that does not mean we should not try. The more we carefully consider our words, actions, and thoughts, the easier it will be to do next time. Over time, we will see the fruits of our efforts as we start to become, a little bit at a time, the ideal version of ourselves.