I’ve used that phrase 2 or 3 times in the last 24 hours.  ”You owe it to yourself”.  Mostly out of habit, though it was used intentially in place of other phrases.  However, I just re-read my earlier post about the Town Hall for Hope, and realized my recent excessive use of this phrase.  This realization came with some self-analysis, of course.

What does this phrase mean when we use it?  We’re implying that a debt exists, as you can’t “owe” something that doesn’t include a debt of some kind.  Whether that debt is currency or something else doesn’t matter.  It’s still implies a transaction has taken place and you haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain yet.  Thus, debt.

But how can you be in debt to yourself?  If you own yourself, as we believe in this country that you do, and any debt to yourself implies a transaction with yourself, how can you have a one-sided transaction with yourself?

We have a phrase in the world of computers and blinking lights called a “technical debt”.  A technical debt is a debt which you rack up with yourself by not being diligent about how you do your work.  If you don’t document properly or often enough, or you cut corners with functionality, you are building up a technical debt.  You will be forced to repay this debt later, with interest, through the difficulties your lack of documentation brings, or the bugs your corner cutting introduced.  Thus, the debt to yourself exists because it is a liability (in the accounting sense) - much like credit card debt, it will eventually prove a major weakness when trouble comes knocking.

You can be in debt to yourself by creating situations in which you leave loose ends or openings for trouble to expose your weaknesses.  If you see these unpatched holes in your life, you are just racking up interest by procrastinating on the maintenance.

Back to the topic at hand, regarding my usage of this term “you owe it to yourself”.  To answer my line of questioning: while not strictly a debt of work left undone, the debt we create with ourselves shares the same consequence - it will prove a liability when trouble comes knocking.  In the case of politics, the debt we create is a debt of ignorance.  The currency is knowledge.

“You owe it to yourself” means you need to repay your ignorance debt with truth and awareness.

If you haven’t heard of it, you owe it to yourself to check out Dave Ramsey’s Town Hall for Hope at http://www.townhallforhope.com. I won’t go into the fuzzy wuzzies of the word hope, or the message that Dave wants to spread. Some people like the guy, some people don’t. Frankly, I think he’s got good things to say, even if a lot of it is common sense. Often enough I find that what I think of as common sense really isn’t all that common. As with everything in life, finances and politics tend to lock us into that deep focus, that tunnel vision that clouds our thinking and our perspective. Sometimes it takes someone bringing that common sense back to help us find perspective again.

What I take away from the Town Hall for Hope idea is something more practical than a simple boost in perspective or a dose of common sense - the idea that our current economic troubles and the deep uncertainty the world faces is both a cause of and a symptom of fear. And as Dave Ramsey says, hope is the cure for fear. Barak Obama spoke those words too, though from his actions and the actions of our congress, I don’t think he really understood them. Most politicians don’t - they are too busy trying to push an agenda.

We need to take a stand as a people and quit relying on the media and the government to give us hope. The media isn’t financially incented, and the government doesn’t exist to create things. It’s up to us to make our own hope. We can do it through common sense and an acceptance of what’s going on. Despite the fearmongering of those in power, we will pull out of our crisis, and those who are positive and proactive are the ones who will truly profit.

I can’t speak with the eloquence and knowledge that Dave Ramsey can, so I’ll leave it at this. Visit the Town Hall for Hope. Listen to the common sense. Then turn off the poison on TV and go out and do something positive.

Most blogs start with a first post. So here it is. First. Primero. Zuerst. I guess you’ve got to start somewhere. These posts usually consist of the blogger excitedly talking about the future of their blog, expounding on how the visitor should check back soon for the next great article they’re going to write. Most bloggers write that next article, then maybe a few more. These articles center on the awesome shark they caught fishing, or their incredible skydiving experience, topping out with a magnificent lemon merengue pie they tried at some obscure bakery in a place you don’t live. Pretty exciting stuff!

Well, I vowed to myself that I’m not going to do that.

My name is Chris. I work for a small company in Wenatchee, WA called Confluent Data Systems. I’m the Chief Technology Officer there. I don’t fish for sharks, I’ve never jumped out of a plane, and to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of lemon merengue (I had to look up the spelling on Google). I do take pictures though - I’m finally getting back into photography. I haven’t touched it really since high school, but I love it. It’s a great hobby, and I’d love to sell my prints some day for enough money to finance my travels.

There you go. Here’s a picture of a cat that I took. I’m so non-conformist when it comes to blogging that this isn’t even MY cat.