I’m tired of apologizing for my tendency to land firmly in the middle. To change my mind. To rethink. Re-evaluate.

It started with the inability to choose chocolate or vanilla as a child. Thank God someone invented the twist.

It’s not that I don’t have convictions. I despise littering for example.  I’ll chase litterers down and demand an explanation and a cleanup. I’ll put my life at risk to do this.

I just, sometimes—okay, often—see multiple sides. And I can usually find good in everything. I don’t consider myself a Pollyanna. I just find it hard to believe any person or just about any idea can be all bad.

I know it’s a weakness in most people’s eyes. Consider this though:  “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind” (William Blake). Or this: “To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often” (Churchill).  And this: “Every truth has two sides; it is well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either” (Aesop).

Then again, Ayn Rand has a point: “There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”

I don’t know. I can see both sides.

Journalism  seems a fitting profession for me. I can be neutral, unbiased, fair.  I’m just sorry it took 50 years to make up my mind about that.