The Belly Button

The navel is that flat or protruding or even hollowed scar left after your umbilical cord is disconnected very shortly after birth. Its the physical break from Mom. From there the connection is all emotional and dependence. I am a huge fan of mothers and often marvel at their absolute dedication to the cause of mothering. Anyway, as much as most mothers have proven to be astoundingly positive influences in our lives, they are human, have their own challenges and do deserve some slack. I feel sure that there are very few mothers that consciously and actively seek to ruin or undermine their own children. This blog is however not about marvelous mothers but it never harms to grant credit where its due. Returning to the topic of this note; navels! As you probably know the navel is more colloquially known as the belly button and as this note is more conversational than scientific, it is right to refer to it as the Belly Button, its more homely, collegial name. Its also more appropriate for the tone of this "just thinking" note. In fact, let us be consistent with current day practice and give it an acronym, the BB.

I am certain you are quizzically pondering that this is indeed an "odd thing to think about". Well yes it is. That's until you appreciate what follows. In the mid 1900s (1950's, post WW2, working in London and filled with post war silliness), my father, Stanley, a delightfully idiosyncratic character and a small collection of equally curious eccentrics saw the importance of formally registering the Belly Button Lint Guild (BBLG).The purpose of this esteemed collective was to nominally further the study of BB lint but actually to meet, libate and promote good thinking.The chosen libation would have included gin, martini's, whiskey and good wine I am sure. Remember this was post WW2 and the need for hope and celebration for the future was very strong. War has a way of producing "thirstry blokes", my father would say. To my astonishment, this guild was never de-registered and exists to this day. The original members have all passed and to my knowledge the guild is not active any longer. There is infact hope though. This in the form of one young delightful eccentric in London who secretly harbors desire to relaunch this once powerful libatory think group. 

So too the current day....I offer a few ideas.

1. We live in a world that is undeniably more complex, more competitive and more dynamic than ever in history. This ever present uncertainty requires on going thinking, creativity innovation, adaptability and solution implementation. Collaborative thinking offers the best chance of sustainably dipping into all of the above list. I offer this as one of the key process approaches to the good life we yearn for in business and in life.
2. I feel that never in my life have we needed good positive leadership like we need today. That's globally! There is a deep mistrust of most political appointed leaders and after all these are the leaders that have a great impact on our lives albeit from a macro perspective. Their effect is real. I think that leadership in general is due for an overhaul but the free market does have the checks and balances of the market. I believe that I am open minded, a liberal thinker and thus open to entertaining a spectrum of thinking without necessarily agreeing with all. I subscribe to the idea that honest and good people can and probably should differ. I've heard it said that for liberalism to thrive we need the following 3 recognitions to be ever present. (they're probably true for all leaders)
• Conflict is universal, use it to allow competition and use it to maximise outcomes.
• People are dynamic. They will change as their worlds change.
• Never completely trust leaders. Always assure there are checks and balances.
3. Now returning to the BB more specifically. Reading Bill Bryson's, The Body, I was intrigued at the following revelation. The study of the BB is far wider than the BB Lint Guild. Bill Bryson informs us early in the book in the chapter about skin and hair, whilst discussing different species of microbes about the Belly Button Biodiversity Project. This project was conducted by researchers at the North Carolina University back and the results first published at the end of 2012. In this study 60 randomly selected Americans were studied and the lurking microbes in their belly buttons identified. Quite astoundingly there were 2368 different microbes and an average of 24.3 new-to-science microbes identified in each person. That incredible at so many levels, dont you think? Just reminds you of how much we have to learn and how unique each of us is. 


What is a microbe - a microorganism like a germ, bacteria, virus and other bloody small noonoos. Some good, some bad. Like the Covid19 is a bady.