by Ethan Johnson
March 25, 2007

Everything changes,
and nothing changes.
The tables turn,
and life goes on. (Lick the Star)

Just a friendly reminder: If you came here looking for "thought leadership", you've come to the wrong place. Mar and I are just folks, living our lives, one of us more chatty about it online than the other.

And now, the Gospel of Dave Rogers:

Anyway, I thought of offering some pithy commentary on all the latest frothy, breathless bullshit littering the blogosphere, issued by the commentariat and the punditocracy, usually led by the non-existent A-listers, and rebutted, refuted and futilely objected to by us "losers," but what's the point?

Indeed. Perhaps some direction might be found in the Tao:

When there is Tao in the empire
The galloping steeds are turned back to fertilize the ground by their droppings.
When there is not Tao in the empire
War horses will be reared even on the sacred mounds below the city walls.

Simply put, is one's contribution to the greater discourse or the world's collective experience bullshit, or fertilizer?

I could expound for days on end about all of the activities that I have deemed Not Worth the Calories, or Hardly Worth Fretting Over, or Things That Disturb Us From Our Rest. But why?

Whether he intended to or not, Dave Rogers inspired me by his "throwaway" comments later in his cited post about how many push-ups he can do these days. Spoiler alert: More than I can. I'm thinking that concentrating on improving my push-up count might be worlds more productive, if only for me, than to try and solve all of the world's problems by writing about them online.

Of course, such a noisy one as I will not be turned away from tossing off my proverbial two cents here on this site. This may be crass, but frankly, being that I'm paying my hard-earned money to maintain this site, I'll use it as it pleases me. And what pleases me these days is exercise, enjoying our new HDTV, cooking, and making short instructional videos. Nobody forces me to do these things.

The fact is, like Shakespeare wrote, there are more things under Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in most philosophies. It's easy to get hooked in to believing that this week's battle royale is the only thing that matters, and better yet, Changes Everything. Here's the news: A vast number of people have no clue that you're fighting that battle or leading that charge. A sizable number don't really care, either.

As Dave Rogers is wont to say, we don't change what we do, just how we do it.

I'm more interested in teaching than giving orders.

I'm more interested in learning than reciting dogma.

I'm more interested in improvement than complacency.

I'm more interested in friendships than strategic partnerships.

I'm more interested in sharing than thought leadership.

That's where I'm at these days. If you're gone when I return, I'll understand. <EM>