In the world we live in, nothing is black and white. There are a lot of gray areas. From my law classes I have learned, when it comes to questions of the law, the correct answer is always, “It depends”.
In public accounting and the IRS there are a lot of gray areas. I use to think that accounting and taxes were just math, which was black and white. I know better now. As it turns out, most of accounting and taxes are rules. Rules in our society are subject to interpretation. No one set of rules apply to all circumstances. If rules were as simple as black and white, we would not need accountants, lawyers, courts, police, and all of the large volumes of tax code.
The hyphenated black-and-white when used as an adjective, is any of several monochrome forms in visual arts. However Black and white is a form of visual representation that does not use color. Black-and-blue is an adjective referring to physical abuse. Black-and-white images are not usually starkly contrasted black and white. They combine black and white in a continuum producing a range of shades of gray. Just like our accounting principle based rules.
Long ago, our lives were much simpler. Henry Ford originally offered his first Model T in any color you wanted as long as you wanted black. Now we have full time lawmakers who justify their existence by attempting to spell out all of our rules in black and white. Life is not as simple now, we must keep up.
The black and white picture of the dice is to remind us that life does not have to be a crap shoot. Don’t fall into the group of people who just, “Let it fly” and hope for the best. Hire the right professional for the job. Don’t fall victim to ignorance.
Brett Bickham
Clifton, TX