Random

So, would you rather know a lot about a little, or a little about a lot?

On the one hand you would be an expert with a fascinating job that only a handful of people really understand and appreciate, but you would be rather boring at dinner parties and no one would want you for their trivial pursuit team. On the other hand you would be a morning radio show sidekick with a good bead on a bunch of pop culture that never saved anyone's life or converted a single thought into marketable product.

I suppose well-rounded means that you have enough expertise to be respected as a thinker/doer/teacher/practitioner but enough of an everyday-ness to you so that you can carry on functional conversations about politics or recent television series. I don't suppose that is bad, but I have this desire to be practical no matter where I fall in the spectrum.

I hope my expertise remains marketable and I strive to make it a practical good for my clients. The body of knowledge beyond my vocation is certainly random and far afield, but I hope it is practical for the most part. I could care less about knowing which Hollywood celebrity is now Oprah's favorite. I am caring less and less about what the political right or left or center think about any given issue. (To know one side is to know by definitional elimination the other side, anyway ... so there is really no more use for political partisan conversation. Declare yourself left or right or center or conservative or liberal or progressive or whatever -- it's all just labels at this point in our history. But I digress ...)

Being well read is very important to me: Important for you to be well read so that I will enjoy talking to you and important for me to be well read so that I have something of value to offer (beyond my endless gift of opinionation). Good fiction means that I always have something to share, even with people who are very little like me. Good history means I have perspective about current events that helps to elevate my conversation above partisan talking-points. Good spiritual material means that I have some insight - wisdom, if you will - to accompany my knowledge. Current events or sports will only interest me for a short time: Such things are the flat soda of conversation.

And if all we can talk about is television or movies then . . . yawwwwwn . . . "It is past my bedtime and I really should be going. Goodnight." Such entertainment is good for snack, but lacks the substance of real food.

All that said, I still appreciate a good comedian or morning radio show sidekick. After I conquer this planet I shall continue to have such specimens kept for my amusement. Court jesters, I believe they were called.