Life is like sorting laundry...

I often sing to myself while I'm sorting my laundry. "Light, dark, dark, light..."
And then I pick up the black and white hounds tooth skirt, and there's my brain all over the bed.
Don't you all worry now. I'm alright. I'm beyond the illusion that life is black and white. We all find and live in new shades of gray every day. But I've been thinking about last week's episode of Dexter. No spoilers here, and if you don't watch the show, it doesn't matter either. He's just been contemplating the darkness and light in people a lot. And I've found myself doing the same thing. I think human instinct begs us to pick ourselves up out of the darkness and run toward the light. But what if you have to embrace your dark side, cast a few shadows, on your way to the brighter path? It can be so clear which way you need to run, but that doesn't mean the path is white. I guess I'm really talking about the whole means to an end thing, aren't I? I guess I am. And suddenly, this feels much less interesting. But that doesn't make it less true, does it? I guess not. But now I've lost interest...

Do you think this whole black and white thing would be less of an issue if we didn't set up norms? Do you think we've made it harder for ourselves? If we're not kind people who pair up and procreate by a certain time period, then, for some, we're not doing it right. So what if the shadows are just different, not dark? What if white is archaic? Or maybe, we bash the norms so that we have an excuse for running them over. Maybe we accept shades of gray because we know we're incapable of living another way. Maybe we've set things up so that our failures are the failures of the system instead of ourselves. Maybe...

Something to end on:
I'm reminding myself more and more lately how precious life is. I tend to tread carefully because of that, attempting to avoid wrong turns. But I think I'm starting to trust my sense of direction and show life how much I care by just embracing it really hard... in one of those hugs you never want to end. The ones where you breath in. And sigh out. And there's life.

Oh, and:
On a somewhat unrelated note, sometimes music and silence speak volumes. I know it's an old saying or something, but in case it doesn't come up again for a while, I just wanted to tuck that thought in here. And now, I shall tuck me in, too.