Shades of Gray

When I was a kid, life was simple. Good was good. Bad was bad. Right was right. Wrong was wrong. You could eat meat and fried things. You could play Cowboys and Indians. You could know everything.
Hmmmm....
No, I certainly didn't know more when I was 5 or 10 or 15, but what I did know, I was certain I was right about. Now, I am almost always certain that I am wrong, and that is probably the only thing I am right about. I no longer believe anyone or anything can ever be right or wrong 100%. There are at least two sides to everything. Nothing is black or white. There is only gray. I have given up on black and white. I do sometimes wonder if something is gray 80% or gray 20%.
It is also possible that I no longer know any answers because my head is loaded full of files that I'd like to delete. Spring Love for instance. Stevie B. 1988. I somehow neglected to remember I knew every word. I don't even want to remember the song exists- yet I know every word! I can even remember dancing to it. Friday night, post Lacrosse game, Franchin's Under 21 Club. Ugh! Change the station.
Wind Beneath My Wings. Is that better or worse? Not only did I have all of the lyrics, I had the whole movie in my head. Beaches, that is. Same time frame, so apparently most of my brain storage got filled up in the late 80s. But as I drove up the New Jersey Turnpike, continuing my stroll down memory lane and watching Beaches in my head, I got to thinking...maybe the song wasn't about Barbara Hershey's character being Bette Midler's character's hero but the other way around? Maybe it wasn't about Midler envying Hershey's beauty and grace but Hershey envying Midler's courage and charm. Either way, what I found even more intriguing was when Hershey is just curled up in a beach chair dying while Midler bonds with Hershey's daughter. I thought it was a pretty dull part of the movie when I was 15. I thought Hershey's acting left something to be desired. Now I think it was dead on. She wasn't cold and emotionless, she was dealing with huge internal struggles about the end of her own life and the loss of her daughter and perhaps even giving her daughter up to the person who was "the wind beneath her wings" and her conflicts over her daughter being happy and her own jealousy that her daughter might be happier with someone else. Oh, god. Sounds cheesy when I am not alone in my car.
Funny how perspectives change. But it all just demonstrates more that there are multiple sides to every story.