Black and White Town

I've been thinking a lot lately, gentle readers, about youth - about all I know now (and I'm not that old) and all I didn't know before.  All the places I have been and all the people I have known.

I keep meeting new people.  Through work and this blog and all the things I have become involved in and I'm constantly surprised, dear ones, by just how very young some of the people I meet seem.

Now, before you start telling me that all people are different and that your MatchGirl should not be so judgmental, I want you to know that I'm not painting with broad strokes.  But.  But, young people tend to view this whole wide world in black and white.  Good and bad.  Right and wrong.  And, often times, they are fanatical about these feelings.  To me, this is simply a sign of naivete, of youth.  And, no matter how intelligent or capable, the fact that these young people are viewing the world as black and white simply shows a lack of understanding.

It's ignorant.

Once you've lived a little bit in the world - experienced life through the highs and lows of love and loss.  Through heartache and heartbreak, through having a major change and really feeling who you are and what you can be.  Don't tell me that theere are no shades of grey.

I know people who were more mature at 19 than others I've known at 45.  They'd lived life and they'd found out, very young, that the world is not so simple as pure black and white.

Maybe, gentle readers, I envy a bit those who can look at the world with such base understanding.  It's easy to go through life with blinders on, thinking that you know everything.  For the rest of us, not living in a black and white town, things just aren't so simple.