There's been a lot of talk recently about Obama having "great temperament", particularly with how he is able to rise above emotionalism in the face of tremendous challenges. Separately, I've also been thinking about musical tuning, after watching one of the artist lessons in Garageband '09 (Ben Folds). How do these relate? Well, reaching way back to my musical days, I recalled a musical definition of "temperament".

Here's how wikipedia describes it: In musical tuning, a temperament is a system of tuning which slightly compromises the pure intervals of intonation in order to meet other requirements of the system."

This really speaks to me - because it encapsulates our constant struggle to build some beautiful, while compromising each step of the way. Compromising is precisely what makes something beautiful. In a musical chord, each note can only be considered "in tune" after considering all other notes that are being played at the same time - it's all relative! As with our myriad of personal projects and initiatives, we must constantly "tune up" or "tune down" the individual objectives, as we consider the grander scheme of life.