Can We Only See In Shades of Grey?

I know I've been posting about the phone conversations I've had with someone for the last couple of posts. But I can't help it posting it because everytime we talk, something absolutely stupid would be said in the conversation. Sometimes by me, but more often than not, by him...

I HAVE to tell you part of our latest conversation because it had me absolutely in fits...

Last night
Him: On Saturday we will all go for a Singaporean dinner ok?
Me: OK! *Feeling quite happy, thinking: He said "We all" so it must be with his friends as well but that's ok because it's a SINGAPOREAN dinner!! That means we gonna have Singaporean food and I started to imagine things like hor fun*

Tonight
Him: Eh, ok, confirmed. Saturday, we're going for dinner with the Singapore Society.
Me: *slightly alarmed* What do you mean?
Him: Yesterday you said ok what!
Me: WHAT?! Yesterday, you said SINGAPOREAN dinner. Tonight you say dinner with the SINGAPORE SOCIETY. That's different!
Him: No, it's the same... that's what I meant, we have dinner with the Singapore Society.
Me: *shrieking by this time* THAT'S NOT THE SAME!!! *Then a bit calmer* So when I say, "Let's have a Japanese dinner", does it mean I bring Japanese along?!?!?

OMG...

You know when people try to "promote" their friends? For example, on friendster? Then they say/write things like: "He/She is one of a kind/extremely rare find and is single! Guys/Girls, what are you waiting for?"

Yeah, he's like that. One of a kind (I shall refrain from commenting if it's a good thing or not).

So, girls, what are you waiting for???

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Can we only see in shades of grey?

Can we feel and think in shades of grey as well?

I do not know him.

But I do know of him.

One part of me acknowledges that what he did was wrong, in the eyes of the law.

The other part cannot deny that it was done for a reason. Could it be love? Love for a sibling and a desire to make things better?

There is no good reason to break the law.

Perhaps.

He has broken the law and has to accept the consequences.

He has.

From one perspective, it was stupid.

From another, he was brave.

Consider it one way and it’s suicide.

Consider it another and it’s murder.

In my mind, when I think of him, I think of him as a 25-year old man, before I think of him as somebody who has broken the law.

I have friends and family members who are 25 year-olds. I am not too far from that age myself. And when I think of us, I see in my mind, ourselves with a life ahead. A good future, a not so good future maybe… But… a life, nonetheless.

We are not just students, bankers, teachers, drug traffickers or whatever else our occupation may be. We are daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews, neighbours, colleagues and friends. He too, was someone’s son…. someone’s brother…. and someone’s friend.

I’m not saying he should not have been executed.

I’m not saying it was right to do so.

But what I'm saying is...above race, above religion, above nationality, above citizenship, he was a fellow human being. And I feel for him, his family and his friends…

Can we think and feel in shades of grey?