ACCURACY AND PROFUNDITY

October 27, 2015

A colleague and I attended a tax briefing this afternoon.  While waiting for the program to start, I read a copy of Herman Melville’s ‘Billy Budd’ that I brought along and came across the following phrase from the chapter on Digression “...not accurate as an accountant nor profound as a philosopher”.

It seems Mr. Melville put these two professions on opposite sides of a plane in relating to a person’s way of thinking: on one hand the accountant representing all that stands for what is logical and tangible, while the philosopher represents all that is deep, abstract and almost mystical.

What struck me was that the idea seems not only to be timely, but it is also timeless.  Whatever organization it may be, it seems that the accountant is seen as somebody who is nitpicky, always trying to find fault, always questioning the propriety and validity of things.  In short, the usual impression is that the accountant has been trained and works as somebody who doubts first and foremost, before giving a reluctant form of reliance on the actions and documents of others.  On the other hand, people talk about a philosopher who over-analyzes everything and expresses their thoughts in so many words.  I then realized that almost everybody else around me falls somewhere between these two sides, hence the polarization may seem valid.

Mr. Melville’s character which was the one referred to in the passage is somehow in the middle, and was painted as somebody disinterested, hence, a perfect person to fulfil an unbiased role.

In my case, I believe I am split between the two, since according to Mom, I actually take after these two types of people in her person and that of my father’s, and from my maternal grandmother and grandfather.  Two of them think like an accountant, and the other two think like a philosopher.  One can only guess which.  And yet, sometimes I believe the role switches because at other times, I feel that the accountant turns dreamy, while the philosopher seems to have come down from the pedestal of his thoughts and got down to the hard and cold facts.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just go on like this?  Would people see me as confused, or would they see me as somebody with multiple sides to my personality?  I can only hope that whatever frame of mind I adapt in any given situation, I may not discourage other people.  I may offend them sometimes with my bluntness, but I wish that I am able to impart a part of my mind and heart with them, so that we can learn more about life and be enriched in the journey together.