Shades of Gray.

When you first meet love, you find it in a gift-wrapped box. You're distracted by the pretty bow on the outside that glitters every time you look at it just right. But at some point, you're ready to take off that bow and pull apart the paper that keeps the present inside tightly bounded and out of sight. All the packaging has been ripped apart and cast aside, and what's left is the simple box. You pull of the lid, and in the bottom of the box, there it is. There is the present you've been awaiting, what you've been hoping for. Initial surprise and happiness overcome you as you play with your new present, show it to others and declare proudly that you must have done something amazing to deserve such a gift. You were so excited to grab the gift that you didn't notice the layers of tissue paper you scattered around the room to get to it. Ordinary paper in shades of gray.

Love comes wrapped in grays. Black and white have no room to fit, to prosper, to amount to anything other than bullshit and simplicity. Black and white covers the easy way out. It's the grays, the mixtures of these two opposite shades, that keep love thriving. But if you ignore them, if you just throw away every shade of gray, you will miss all that went into this gift. You will miss everything that made it worthwhile, and everything that continues to make it worthwhile.

Your mom throws the ripped up wrapping paper in the garbage, and saves the pretty bow for another occasion. The tissue paper is stuffed back into the original box your gift came in, and sits in your bedroom closet. After many experiences of happiness and despair with love, you decide eventually that this gift must be exchanged. It had an expiration date from the start, and though you once believed otherwise, it proved to be the same as all the other presents you have received. The box is retrieved and the gift is forced back inside, the tissue paper entangled over it.

I wonder if you never ignored the tissue paper. If you took this extra seemingly pointless packaging and paid it attention, what would've been different? The grays may seem like parts you could make do without, but who are we without our seemingly pointless packaging? Who are we without our past, our beliefs, our prayers? Black and white can never fit there, black and white aren't meant to fit there.