Those Who Walk the Gray

In life there are those who like to paint the world in white and black, simply there are those who are good and those who are evil.  This is all fine and dandy in an ideal world, however in the actual world we now live in this cannot be the case.  For as any painter will tell you white must take on many tints of grey before it can reach black, which is also the case in those going from black to white.  This means in this world there must be men who walk in the grey as it were.    It also implies that in order for there to be men who have lived chaste lives there must be others on the periphery shielding those from the darkness.  In a world with war and crime, and so many evil acts there must be those who deal with it and in so doing sully their hands in its soot so that others can be soot free.  The man who must commit murder to protect his family, the cop who must witness evil to catch those who perpetrate it, there must be those who reach forth their hands and pull those back from the darkness sullying there own hands, etc.
Many of those who have been fortunate to live "chaste" lives, and can paint there world in black and white will see those who walk the grey and scoff in altruism ways forgetting or even not knowing the soot which covers some was sprinkled on them so that they themselves didn't have to be.  Ironically it is the very fact that they walk the grey that attracts those of the dark to them, giving them influence over some who might be considered lost, dragging them back into the white.  The white see the soot and say don't go near him he's dirty, while the dark say hey maybe he isn't so bad he has soot on him as well.  So one who walks the grey will have influence for good where others will not.  This however is a double edge sword in that when you are on the periphery you are constantly in a state of battle and as we know this battle claims many a soul.