When Kathryn was in preschool we were informed of one item she needed to work on – she could not readily identify the color gray. Luckily, we caught this early, fixed the problem, and she’s had no color-related issues since then. Gray – the perfect blend of black and white, two opposites. Wish more of us could see the beauty of gray.

Kathryn couldn’t identify gray, but she was three – what’s wrong with so many adults these days? What happened to the coming together to find a compromise, a gray, so to speak, when we have opposing views? Seems if we all stopped the name calling, the need for sound bites, the need for likes or retweets, we might be able to move forward on important issues.

I love people who have strong views. But do strong views have be mean unwavering? Isn’t there room for some compromise? A step closer together. Maybe that compromise isn’t a perfect solution but maybe the next step will be. We have to start somewhere.

You may hate or love Ted Kennedy (when he was alive obviously), John McCain (before he lost his mind), Joe Biden and others but they all have a few things in common – strong beliefs but the ability to compromise, see the other side and work towards common ground. We just don’t see that anymore. These were people who sought out solutions, not always perfect ones, but attempts to find the compromise.

We face a lot of issues today including gun ownership rights, civil rights and terrorism. These are complex issues with many schools of thought and many huge consequences for action and lack thereof. Can we try, just try, to find the beauty in gray, which ironically, can be spelled two ways?