Adrian Baldwin
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Observations
  • Reviews
  • Blog
  • The Blog Library
  • My 70s Things
  • Contact Me
  • Links

Grey shades and whimsical thoughts

7/18/2012

0 Comments

 
I have always thought that grey is an ultra-conservative, largely depressing and a frankly characterless colour that makes me think of battleships and getting old. It’s a fact that my hair is going grey, and very light grey in places, and that when I look in the mirror these days, I see an ageing chap sympathetically gazing back at me. Is grey therefore a colour worthy of dismissal and avoidance at all costs?

But, and I reflected upon this weighty matter on my way to work this morning (in the rain and the traffic); grey isn’t as bad as I have portrayed above.  Grey is actually something that you can associate with experience and maturity, and these are good things! Here is some evidence of my latest, if slightly bizarre, thinking.

When I was a teenager, I saw everything in black and white (or right and wrong or good or bad, if you prefer). I had an opinion on most things and was prepared to share it. As I got older, I began to appreciate that black or white rather depended upon perspective and that when you were prepared to consider anything from an alternative perspective, shades of grey (or more encompassing thought) replaced black or white. 
 
Having a very strong opinion on something is okay, don’t get me wrong, but before you share those opinions, it is worth being completely sure of your facts and it is worth considering how others might think because otherwise you run the risk of looking, and sounding like an idiot! In this context, grey is arguably a safe colour, the colour of balance.
 
This maturing of thought was important when I became a manager of people in the workplace. “My way or the highway”, which is black and white management thinking, is bad for morale and for developing your colleagues, and a more inclusive approach is necessary to get the best out of a team or achieve the best result for the business. In a spectrum of black to white, grey is therefore the colour of engagement.

This week has seen racism popping up in the news again (thanks to football) and this is another space where ‘grey’ is so much better than ‘black or white’ thinking! In this context grey is the colour of multicultural Britain.  
 
And finally, this weekend Simon Hoggart wrote in the Guardian (14/07/12) about “Fifty Shades of Grey” the erotic trilogy of books by E. L.  James. His comment, ‘porn for real people’, makes grey sound so very much more exciting. Mrs Baldwin has her copies and I’ll be looking forward to finding out how she gets on with them.  

Grey can represent experience, maturity, perspective, engagement, multiculturalism, safety, excitement and balance. And that doesn’t feel dull at all.   
 
I’ll admit that this piece is a bit whimsical, a random thought just popped into my head and I started writing as a result – just indulgent nonsense perhaps? Have you been engaged though? Would your answer be‘yes’ or  ‘no’ (think black or white) or would it be ‘grey’?  

My favourite colours are orange (God knows what I’d write about that), brown and then red, in that order, but from now onwards I’ll be more positively disposed towards grey! The hair, well it can go grey without the interference from ‘Just For Men’. From now on, it’s not so much about getting old; surely it’s more Zen like, and about achieving  self-enlightenment?  Or am I just kidding myself?

Grey is great – and you read it here first!

And for readers of the Fifty Shades series; please let me know if you agree.

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Adrian Baldwin

    Blogging for more than a decade

    Archives

    December 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    May 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.