Shades of Gray

I love the bright and festive colors of Christmas…of every holiday…
but I’m also aware of how they contrast against a backdrop painted gray. 

I was raised in the Catholic religion…where I was taught the difference between wrong and right…with the Bible and scriptures as our guide…everything was black or white.

Then growing up I began to witness the way black and white interplay…
how so much of the world we live in has blended into gray.

In the Catholic Church…priests taught us the 10 Commandments…they celebrated the communal feast…and we are left to wonder how so many innocent children could be molested by these priests.

Our leaders assure us every child is precious…we will protect them…they tell us…we have no reason to doubt it…but then we see our children gunned down in their schools…and our leaders do nothing about it.

You know if you are gay or transgender…you’ve known it all along…but then you’re told you need to be fixed…that who you are…is wrong.

We are all humans we are all connected but much to our Creator’s chagrin…we forget those same connections when we judge each other by the color of our skin.

In this country we’re all  immigrants…except, of course, the indigenous people who were here long before…but we watch when immigrants…say to other immigrants…
you’re not welcomed anymore.

In the written history of America…we are the greatest country in the world…where everyone is free we proclaim as we wave our flags…red, white and blue…but when we’re taught or read our actual history…we realize…that never has been true.

As we live from day to day…as we attempt to fulfill our hopes and wishes and dreams…
our initial world of right and wrong…is never as simple as it seems…

Which is why I wish for solutions to our problems every Christmas…
It’s why every day I pray..
because our holiday colors will never be as bright or as festive…
if we keep muting them with gray.

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