On the Color Gray

The color gray is no one’s color. It is the color of cubicles and winter camouflage, of sullage, of inscrutable complexity, of compromise. It is the perfect intermediate, an emissary for both black and white. It lingers, incognito, in this saturated world. It is the color of soldiers and battleships, despite its dullness. It is the color of the death of trees. The death of all life, when consumed by fire. The color of industry and uniformity. It brings bad weather, augurs bleakness. It is the color other colors fade to, once drained of themselves. It is the color of old age. 

From “Ode to Gray” by Meghan Flaherty for the Paris Review

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