The Muddled Middle

The great Franciscan author Richard Rohr writes and speaks regularly of the three phases of the life journey. Rohr often describes a human journey in three broad movements:

• Early stage (order): You see the world in clear, simple terms—right vs. wrong, good vs. bad. You rely on rules, structure, and certainty.

• The muddled middle (disorder): Your previous certainties stop working. Life gets complicated. You experience doubt, failure, paradox, or suffering.

• Later stage (reorder): You come into a deeper, more compassionate, and integrated understanding of life.

I think there is relevance here to the work of the public administrator. The job is initially clear, simple, described, and structured. Certainly upon hire it is! And then as things progress and time goes by, you experience this period akin to the muddled middle. Complications ensue, you experience distress, there are items popping left and right that are “not on the job description,” there are gray lines and not just black and white, and so forth. Working through this — to get to Rohr’s “reorder” phase — takes time, personal growth and evolutionary practices, and focused, mindful development at the personal/professional/organizational level.