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23 March 2011

Striving To Be Average

   It was worth every penny of whatever I spent, to travel thousands of miles to hear someone remark that one of the best pieces of advice they'd ever received was, "Strive to be average."  Incidentally, the advice was not unsolicited, as I believe the axiom that unsolicited advice is usually interpreted as criticism.
 
   Today I will strive to be average.  Not because I exclusively need to ascend or descend to average, but because, as my son, then 11 years old, once told someone who asked him to describe his dad, said, "My dad is like the fan switch in your car.  There may be five positions, but the only ones my dad uses are "off" and "high."

   I have to identify and accept the truth about myself, whatever that turns out to be.   I don't have to like what I see, I only have to accept it. The truth is, I travel back and forth, mentally and emotionally, between the extremes of grandiosity and self-loathing, rarely, if ever, pausing at the place of rest called average.  For me, average will be the highway to humility, the subject of my next blog.