A friend of mine mentioned a need to decide between financial independence versus poetic calling not too long ago. Those sort of decisions haunt me. Either/Or. One or the other. But why not both? People are quick to point out that the world is not black or white - and yet these same people will say that Barack Obama is black (or more politically correct, African American). But Barack Obama is of a white mother and black father. Since when did not being white mean being black? As far back as I can remember, actually. And when did not being Indian make me white in Trinidad? Same logic, different perspective. In a world of ANDs our categories thrive on ORs. Why can't, for example, Barack Obama be both black and white? The fact is that... he is.

And why can't my friend follow a path of financial independence AND a poetic calling? A long time ago, a boxer with a 12 string told me that one day I would have to choose whether to follow my poetic side or my engineering side... and that worried me for years since he said that the longer I waited the less I would be able to do. But it is possible to be both. The only thing that holds people back is... 'other people'. Even on the web, tags and categories limit content and viewing to those interested in those tags and categories - but the web, mimicking life, is much richer than categories and tags. Something can be funny AND serious, something can be artistic AND solid engineering. The reason we do categorize is because we only have limited time and want to find what we wish - which comes down to us seeing what we want. And that isn't always real.

The world isn't black and white. The world is monochrome and the shades in between are the depth of AND. We can't celebrate diversity without the AND, but by defining diversity we make everything EITHER/OR. We lose the AND. We can be whatever we can be which could be more than a category, a job title, or a path. It's never easy, especially in a world built on OR and toxic debt (not 'toxic asset').

You can Have a category or you can Be.