“Welcome, we are gathered here today to remember our dear friend, Mediocrity, a truly great man.”

“No he wasn’t,” yelled a voice from the back of the community center.

The Preacher shuffled his notes and then continued. “To begin, we will take a moment to remember all the great things Mediocrity achieved during his time with us, fear not, this video will only take a moment. Roll the video please. Ahem. well, folks, the video doesn’t seem to be working right now. Tell you what, we’ll get back to the video later. For now, let us remember our friend through serious words spoken seriously.”

“Let’s not and say we didn’t,” shouted the rude voice from the back of the Hall. This time the Preacher made a signal and a gang of black clad ushers began making their way to the trouble maker in the back row.

The Preacher cleared his throat again and then continued. “Mediocrity thrived during his early days in our organization. Back then there was a healthy environment of power politics, backbiting and cliques that held up progress nicely. However, as people began to look beyond themselves, the cliques began to fade out and as people began to focus on their God given mission instead of their petty political games, Mediocrity took ill with the sickness that would eventually claim him.”

“Good riddance to bad rubbish I say,” shouted the annoying voice from the back. The Preacher gestured more urgently to the ushers.

However, the ushers were far too busy with other things. They were in the back as well, huddled in a circle, arguing among themselves who should be in charge of this important operation.

So it was that the voice continued to shout without hindrance.

As it turned out, the ushers never did get around to silencing the voice of reason. Still, the congregation took comfort in the fact that even though their dear friend, Mediocrity, had passed, he was still with them in spirit.