BUT I DIGRESS

A Reflection On Addition & Subtraction It is October 23, 2017 and today a couple became first time parents and with that some friends of ours grandparents. Today also however, a friend of ours became a widow. Today a child is born and a friend lost. Today at birth, a new life is created on the same day that death extinguishes a full other one. Today there is joy on the one hand and grief on the other. Today a new heart beats while a mature one is silenced. Such are the competing factions of happiness and sorrow. Such are the emotional struggles when they must be simultaneous. Such are the components of addition and subtraction that define the realities of life cycles. Such are the ingredients of reflection. Copyright © 2017 Ian de W. Semple

“Does dividing middle class into “upper” and “lower” segments contradict the concept? …..like having hips and a chest without a waist.” A recent newspaper article by a learned academic (pun intended) dwelt on the concept of “middle class” in Canada and probed the apparent growing separation of such into an “upper” minority and what amounted to a fading but growing “lower” variety. Employing a plethora of statistical data, the article’s intent appeared to be to locate the new “centre” of the middle class under a trend whereby growth of income in the upper middle class has exceeded that of both the lower middle class and the very rich “one percenters.” The premise of the article, aside from tax considerations, appears to have been that what was normally a unified middle class is under separation and that the majority of that class are falling farther and farther behind their upper middle class cousins. Nowhere were any explanations proffered to explain this growing trend of