Sunday 23 March 2014

G.K.Chesterton: The Glory of Grey


A Glorious Grey Day on Sydney Harbour




Now, among the heresies that are spoken in this matter is the habit of calling a grey day a "colourless" day. Grey is a colour, and can be a very powerful and pleasing colour.
There is also an insulting style of speech about "one grey day just like another."
You might as well talk about one green tree just like another...

 Lastly, there is this value about the colour that men call colourless; 
 that it suggests in some way the mixed and troubled average of existence, especially in its quality of strife and expectation and promise.
Grey is a colour that always seems on the eve of changing to some other colour;
of brightening into blue or blanching into white or bursting into green and gold.
So we may be perpetually reminded of the indefinite hope that is in doubt itself;
and when there is grey weather in our hills or grey hairs in our heads,
perhaps they may still remind us of the morning.

Alarms and Discursions: Chapter 18


Linking up with Weekends with Chesterton

9 comments:

Mary @ Better Than Eden said...

It's interesting that when I was contemplating grays as a paint choice for one of our rooms, besides white, there were more shades and variations of that than any other color. I love the idea of finding hope in it. (And it gives me a new way to think about these many many grays springing up on my head :)

Carol said...

Yes, I like his idea of the grey in the hair, although I'm hoping for mine to brighten into blue or blanch into white.

Monica said...

As a resident of Seattle, I get plenty of chances to contemplate grey throughout the winter. I'll have to keep this in mind!

GretchenJoanna said...

wow - I find this very encouraging! I hadn't seen this quote before, but it definitely fits with Chesterton's philosophy and the way I *try* to see the world, so I am glad to have another concrete/metaphorical example of a healthy and hopeful point of view on things.

GretchenJoanna said...

A very fitting photo, too, I must say!!

Amber said...

A wonderful photo for this quote! I will had never considered grey in this light, I will have to keep this in mind!

Cindy said...

Perfect picture!! I am not enamored with my grey hair. Blonde is also a color :)

Beth said...

Hmm, not too sure I can wrap my mind around grey being a "powerful and pleasing color" when it comes to hair!

Education is a Life said...

"perhaps they may still remind us of the morning." Beautiful.