Shades Of Grey

This morning someone held together two pieces of a broken sellotape dispenser to form a '69' shape and then said to me 'I need to grow up, don't I?' and my instant reaction was 'No, you're fine just as you are' but, I began to think, that for him to even ask that question then he must think differently towards himself in that aspect than I do. The conclusion, then, that everyone holds different opinions on different things is nothing new at all until you begin to look at opinions on different things in different situations. If we look more closely at my real life example, growing up, then there are so many levels of interpretation to what 'growing up' actually is. To some it's an age, to others it's a mindset, for some people it may be taking responsibility or independence in your life and, for the person mentioned above, it may be thinking with a mind that's in the gutter a bit less often. Listing examples of what qualifies 'growing up' is a relatively easy task though, the hard part comes at when people think or feel qualified to have 'grown up'. If it's a very distinct, clear point like turning a certain age, then you can set as a rule that you're now grown up...but do you feel grown up? Do others think that you've grown up? If you substitute the situation for the other conditions listed previously, then the list of questions just keeps going on and ultimately circles around the point of 'How can someone judge whether someone has grown up or not?' and the answer that I came up with is that, for the most part, you really can't. Like with a lot of situations in life (morality, in particular, has a good scope for this) the answers come in shades of grey with, sometimes, one being no more right than another or with no-one being able to distinguish what option may be better than another. If so many things exist in the world in shades of indistinguishable grey, then why do we seek so often to draw clear, distinct lines that force us to choose black or white of our options? The law, in particular, is flawed in this aspect, I believe, because although it seeks to do justice and be fair to everyone, every person and every case is completely different and has so many factors to consider that the distinct line between black and white can often become extremely unfair to many people. What solution would I suggest for this? I honestly don't know, but on a larger scale of life I would probably have to say this: In the world there exists many shades of grey, many uncertain decisions and questions in life that give you answers that answer nothing certain for you. In those situations, sometimes you've got to make a choice and neither are your preferred option. Whatever you do, after thinking long and hard about it, choose the option that you'll have no regrets about. If that means not making a choice at all, then so be it, but the way I see things is that if you have doubts or uncertainties over your choice then through life you're going to fill with so many regrets that the grey choices around you will only get darker until you can't see the lighter end of the spectrum. So be considerate to yourself, be smart and love the life you live, you might only have one depending on your outlook.