The Green Kangaroo

My girl Meish and I are kindred spirits. We don't get to chat that much, with both of us being in Grad School. But when we do, the conversation is always amusing, interesting and thought provoking.

When we last talked she told me, "you should write your next post about being in the middle."

I've been pondering what to say about it for awhile. And not much has come to mind. So I will share with you the little bit that did.

First of all, what the hell does 'being in the middle'mean, huh? I call it riding "the culture fence". We are neither super-bourgoise nor the type to be featured in a Luke video. (But we might be at the club where the video is being filmed!) For instance, we can go to the Go-Go in DC's hoodiest hood or hang out at Lotus with the "Bourg" bunch. And prefer neither, but are comfortable in both. We tend to thrive in diverse environments with all types of cultures.

We feel at home at the Salsa Club, the reggae house party, or the Dave Matthews concert. And we are okay with that. We party without pretense. And to some, come off as eccentrics because of it.

Unfortunatly, there are those who feel riding the fence is essentially being an Uncle Tom. They say pick one. They say running in both places without a particular alliegance is giving in to "Charlie". The comfortability with and sometimes preference to places with diverse environments as self-loathing. These folk think that it is crime against humanity to speak both the English of the majority in the board room and understand and communicate pretty well in "Black Vernacular" for lack of a better term. Showing up at Ms. Tousie's Juke Joint and then rolling out to some big networking event to meet a bunch of well connected folk or tailgating like a fool at some hippie-dippie ampitheatre concert as anathma. Yet and still, the boug crowd looks down their nose at us, and the folk from around the way act like we just trying to be from 'round their way.

Riding the cultural fence is like being the middle kid. No wonder the middle kid is always screaming for attention? No one listens to middle kid, but they always have an opinion about him/her.

I am the oldest, so I used to care about being in the undefined yet regularly commented on middle. Now? I could care less. Being in the middle allows you to meet people you wouldn't meet, go places you might not go, if you hopped over the fence one way or the other. Sometimes it is hard to find a place where you fit in the best when you are in the middle.

But whatev's.