Life In The Middle

One of my heroes is Jesus.  Not for the miracles or how he died for us in love, but for how he was able to go through life essentially as a bum without possessions and have people follow him around and listen to his wise words.  Not that I want to be a bum, but the idea of not really worrying about money or how I will survive and trusting that I will be provided for does sound appealing.  Then again, I realize I am not Jesus and people will likely tire of hearing me ramble on and feeding me, so I should probably be able to take care of myself. So the question presents itself, how much is enough?  How much wealth should I accumulate to reasonably be able to take care of myself and not be a burden upon others?  How much wealth is enough so I can continue to be generous and help others through charity?  If I live a minimalist lifestyle growing my own food and buying clothes from second hand stores and generally foregoing mindless consumption, how little do I...

Having a centrist opinion has become so rare that I believe it has even become a radical position to take.  If you are not repeating what the talking heads say, you are a radical in the minds of most people.  Not picking a side and riding the fence makes people nervous.  They want to be able to figure you out, compartmentalize you, and they need to know what camp you are in.  When you point out all of the really unappealing aspects of both camps and urge them to hang out with you in the middle, they look at you like you are crazy.  I know because this happens to me a lot.  And I say both camps because the gangsters who control us know that when they only give us two options it is easier to divide us.  Divide then conquer. But are Midlanders the ones who are crazy?  I believe not.  I don't think it is crazy to respectfully listen, then contemplate, then agree with some and disagree with some.  The two camps are swampy, incestuous, struc...

One of my sources of income is financial and accounting consulting.  As a consultant at multiple companies over the years I have heard common phrases used.  One of those common phrases is OVOT or One Version of the Truth.  Typically this is a data warehouse where most of the data from multiple source systems eventually ends up.  Executives at companies consider this the holy grail because it is a one stop shop to pull data and make decisions about the company's future.  As automated as companies try to make the process, there is always a bit of human massaging to make the data fit the table.  And alas, not all of the data makes it into OVOT so there is always side data that needs to be taken into account.  That is probably why it is called one version of the truth, insinuating there are multiple versions of the truth.  This got me pondering on my version of the truth. What is truth?  How can there be multiple versions of the truth?  ...

Lately the word preside has been on my mind.  Not even looking what the dictionary says, to me preside means a leader who defers the actual decision making to the council and make sure everyone in the council is heard before a decision is made.  The president must find the common chord, to listen to and consider what all have to say and then propose back to the group the least common denominators. The president does not dictate the decision nor the direction the conversation goes.  They are essentially a democracy facilitator who hold no official power other than to make sure everyone else is given the opportunity to be heard.  This takes a special type of person who can fit in with all the different cliques.  Much like a chameleon and much like those of us in the middle.  The president is a consensus maker who puts the pieces of the puzzle together through skilled conversation and then presents the completed puzzle back to the group.  The individual...