Watching “50 shades of Gay”, I am in awe of IO Tillett Wright’s compassion for others.

Boxes, patterns, profiles… the human brain is hard wired to quickly assess things against a template and make judgements.

This ability to assess and react served us well on the Serengeti when we would scan the grassland and see a golden mane, thrashing tail, whiskers…  lion, run!! We judged things as either predator or pry.  We reacted with fight or flight.

Unfortunately, we continue to use patters to appraise situations and often apply judgements across a wide group of people.

I’m pretty sure you don’t fit neatly into any prefabbed box.  I can promise you I don’t fit into whatever pattern you think I might.  I’m a jock, a princess, a brainiac and the dumbest guy in the room.  I celebrate life with the straight, gay, black, white and brown.  I travel the high moral ground and drive right down into the low places that you don’t speak of in polite society.

We are all the same…  and we are nothing alike.  We are individuals.  We need to celebrate diversity, exercise compassion and avoid putting others in boxes because it is easy.  We need to get comfortable with the shades of grey we are all painted in.

(original cover photo by Ted Eytan licensed under Creative Commons – Attribution, Share Alike)