Gray Matter

Today’s topic was suggested by another family blogger — one of the authors of “The Puppy Files.” Dave mentioned that they had just bought Bella a new leash and apparently the color of these things is important — like buying a new car, I suppose. Anyhow, go on over to the “The Puppy Files” and get yourself caught up — I’ll wait.

Ok — welcome back. If you read carefully, you remember that Dave indicated that the new leash was gray — and — that gray had a couple of spellings, both of which were correct.

Gray is a very interesting and appropriate topic for me. I am afflicted with a form of color blindness that makes it difficult to distinguish various shades of some colors, like blue and green — they appear gray to me.

But let’s get this spelling thing out of the way before we delve into the fascinating world of gray. Gray and grey are different spellings of the same word, and both are used pretty much everywhere in the English-speaking world. Gray is the common spelling in American English and grey is more common in all other major varieties of English.

So both spellings are correct — gray primarily in the US and grey mostly in the areas that use UK English. As most of you know, I’m a big fan of using a ‘crutch’ to remember things; I don’t need or use a crutch to remember which gray to use, but here’s a good way if you think you need one:
GrAy is how it’s spelled in America.
GrEy is how it’s spelled in England.
To wrap up this spelling lesson, it should be noted that there are a couple of exceptions: Proper names such as Earl Grey and Zane Grey would not be spelled with an ‘a,’ and greyhound, as in the dog, is always spelled with an ‘e.’

As I mentioned above, I’ve grown to become very fond of grey — a lot of colors that Claire says are not gray, appear gray to me. Not that that makes me one dimensional; I see many different shades of gray (in fact, the human eye can distinguish about 500 shades of gray.) If I want to, I can even describe what I see as gray with different terms (just like they seem to do with crayolas these days) — I might refer to a shirt that I’m wearing — even though Claire may think it’s green — as charcoal, slate, gunmetal, ashen, silver, dove, pearl, taupe — all describe what I see as gray.

Gray is a very important word in our society. When I was younger, the home baseball team always wore white uniforms, the visiting team always wore gray. We use the term gray matter to refer to brains or intellect, gray power is a movement describing elderly or senior citizens, a gray page in desktop publishing refers to a text-heavy page with little contrast or white space. A person with gray hair is often considered distinguished and wise — of course that’s usually only true if the person keeps his mouth shut.

Gray is a unit of measurement of absorbed radiation. One gray (Gy) is equal to one joule per kilogram. The gray is 100 times greater than the “rad,” which is the unit of measurement it replaced.

Before I retired, I served on a number of graybeard panels; these are advisory groups made up of usually older individuals that have “been there; done that.” They often are convened to solve a particular problem or review a new initiative. Gray is the color of ashes and it represents a biblical symbol of mourning and repentance. The Confederate Army wore gray uniforms during the Civil War.. The Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League championship — like our Super Bowl. The New York Times is sometimes called the Gray Lady.

There’s always the gray area — something not black or white, something between two differing views. A gray mood is an unhappy mood. There’s a gray market — the business of buying or selling items that are priced below the regulated price.There’s a movie called the Long Gray Line. There is a current movie titled The Gray. One of the better brands of vodka is called Gray Goose. There’s been a popular TV show for several years — Grey’s Anatomy. Earl Grey Tea. She ain’t what she used to be, but the old gray mare is still gray. Excuse me, do you have any grey poupon? There is a Gray Ghost Winery in Amissville, Virginia. There are a number of towns in the US named Gray — Tennessee and Indiana come to mind. And don’t forget about the Gray Line Bus Tours.

Just look around — lots of things are gray: steel, dolphins, clouds, wolves, smoke, fog/mist, ground hogs, rain, owls, stones, elephants…

Probably the most popular color for vehicles is some shade of gray. It is a proven scientific fact that if you drive a gray vehicle, you are elegant, love futuristic looks, and are cool.

A number of songs have gray in their title — I mentioned The Old Gray Mare earlier, but don’t forget about Grey Street by the Dave Matthews Band, Blue, Red and Grey by the Who, Grey Ghost by the Henry Paul Band and Touch of Grey by the Grateful Dead.

Gray is the color of intellect, knowledge and wisdom. Most things are not black or white; gray sits between those extremes of black and white; it’s a color of compromise. It is a color that is dignified, conservative and carries authority — look at the suits that the President and most top executives wear — they’re usually some shade of gray.

Not meant to be a pun, but the color gray has grown on me… I like it. Remember, it’s not by the gray of the hair that one knows the age of the heart.
—30—