That is what life is about. Not excesses but moderation. Not the edge but the middle.
That is what drives the great engines of our times.
Economically speaking it is not the poor or the rich who make companies like Apple rich. It is the middle class trying to become the edge-case.
Socially speaking we admire the edge-cases. People who give up life in the middle and go out there to the bleeding edge of society to try and make a difference. That may be something like what Gandhi did or it could equally be something like what Steve Jobs did.
But we are afraid of leaving the middle. It is one thing reading Steve Jobs' biography and another to do something that makes writing your biography worth it.
Even animals prefer to be in the middle. Life on the edge is tough and dangerous! The penguins at the edge of the cluster can freeze to death and the dear at the edge of the herd will be pulled down by the tiger first.
Sometimes I think the sole responsibility of those in the middle is to produce the edge-cases.
The same way that old skin is shed for the new layer to emerge.
As long as the soft middle keeps producing edge-cases, it is protected. The same way as long as our body keeps regenerating skin tissue the sensitive inner tissue remains protected.
For this protection the middle is defined by the edge. Controlled by it and dominated by it in certain cases.
What will happen if human society stops producing the edge-cases? Some kind of utopian society where risk taking is not required. This is a much explored theme in the realm of science fiction!
What will happen to the middle? It will be scattered like a pile of ashes, that is what will happen.
So let us give credit to both kinds of people. The middles who go through life with their head down looking up now and then to buy a sports car or a Rolex. Now and then producing an edge-case.
The edge-cases, who take the risks and take the road-less-travelled to provide some semblance of protection for the middle.
:)
