Nobody knows for sure how Shakespeare died. I think this is odd. There is some speculation that he went out a few nights before his death, got drunk, and came down with some sort of fever. But it is just barely mentioned that way, by someone who hardly knew him. I think it is odd that no one knows how Shakespeare died.
I could make some trite joke about “To be. Or not to be.” That is the question, after all. But it isn’t the only question. Just one of them. Which brings me to this.
Are there gray areas?
I just heard one person’s viewpoint on this. They stated that there is no such thing as gray areas; they do not exist. They said there are truths and non-truths. Life is absolute. Its principles exacting.
I’ve thought a lot about this, today. And while I’m no expert on anything, anywhere on this planet, I find myself in disagreement with this postulation. I think there are a lot of grays.
Sidebar, if I may. I wish that gray author would have called her book, “Bondage, and all its peril.” Or something. Anything but “Shades of Gray.” It spoils a whole lot of conversations, otherwise.
Back to gray. I am a person who relies heavily on scientific proof. In all things. We have to give science a big freaking “Thanks” every day, for all things it does for us. From toasting our toast, to keeping our hospitals working, to turning on the TV while we sit on the couch eating Cheetos. Science is pretty absolute. Laws and principles cannot be bent.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
There’s a boatload of them. And on. And on.
On the other hand, I am also a spiritual person. And, as such, I have recognized that we smart humans haven’t got everything all figured out yet. We are not even close.
And therein, lies the gray.
We don’t know what’s going to happen ten minutes from now. That’s one example of gray.
We shouldn’t tell lies. That’s a pretty universal concept. But, can lying be necessary in certain situations? What if knowing the truth would do someone no good, whatsoever. In fact, it may harm them deeply. What then?
Seems gray to me.
Even, sometimes in science, there are those times when some sort of freaking “exception” happens. Like egg-laying mammals. Or jellyfish, with eyes and no brains.
Or what about probabilities. The odds that you will roll a three if you are throwing a dice is 1/6. But there are times when you can cast that dice 20 times, and never roll that three. More gray. It is called chance.
Everything else in this world. So I have started a little campaign of my own.
Gray matters.
Just like the brain, grey matter.
And there’s another thing. Is one or the other a better way to spell gray? I like the “a” way. Grey with an “e” seems British to me. Somehow.
And all of this started because today is William Shakespeare’s birthday, way back in 1564. He died 52 years later. On his birthday, of all days. Cause, unknown.
Being. Then not being. That is one of the questions.
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“The 50-50-90 rule: anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.”
― Andy Rooney
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“I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably.”
― Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres Completes
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“If nature has taught us anything it is that the impossible is probable”
― Ilyas Kassam
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