Mediocrity as I watch the midnight pass

I'm sitting here, in a very quiet, very empty house. It is wickedly cold outside, and a few days ago someone said they would be showing up at midnight to kill the people living here.

Guess they need to reset their watches. Of course, if this is the last blog entry I make, I will feel a little silly for having made it.

Such are the risks of bravado.

I won't go into the details of how I ended up here, just suffice it to say I chose to be here. And, regardless of what does (or doesn't) happen over the next few hours, I'm good with it.

I was never much of a quitter, never one for running from a confrontation. A former boss said my problem was I fought all battles. He saw that as a problem. I saw that as a virtue. A man (or woman) who measures the likelihood of victory into the equation of which fights to fight isn't a very good person. Pragmatism is not a virtue. Neither is mediocrity, although I fight nearly daily battles against those whose very existence and financial well-being depends on it being accepted as a sign of excellence.

There are days I feel like Abraham, asking "If I can find 50 good people...?", "How about 45...?", "40?"

We have become a world of Salieris. Sigh.