"My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it." ~Buddy Hackett~
Today, my brain is all tired out, exhausted from constantly having to make decisions, and I wish Buddy's mom was around to simplify life. If you think about it, our days are filled with constant decision-making, some of them so tiny we don't even realize we are making them, some large enough to impact the rest of our lives. Right now I don't have any life-altering choices to make. I'm happy with my career, my husband, my family.
But even the smallest choices have consequences. For example, I can eat rice cake or I can eat chocolate cake. If I choose the rice cake, I miss out on all that exquisite decadence, which doesn't come my way often since we don't usually keep that stuff in the house. If I eat the chocolate cake, those extra pounds are never going to come off and I really want to be committed.
My daughter is in a tougher situation. She has to decide between two boyfriends, one old, one new. The problem? Neither of them is perfect and if she takes one path, she might be making the wrong decision. So she wonders if she should keep her options open by refusing to pick.
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." ~Neil Peart~
Rats! That's true and so she should decide. But how?
She could make a list of each ones pros and cons. I've done that with some of my own big decisions. Not that it helped. In fact, afterwards I was more confused that ever.
So, just like the rest of us, she'll have to go with her "gut", a phrase Buddy's mom would have used. But not easy to put into words.
Me? I'm going to eat the rice cake and top it off with chocolate cake for dessert. And that's my final decision for the day.
5 comments:
You're stronger than me. I'd save the rice cake for later and just eat the chocolate cake. Good luck to your daughter, that's a tough problem.
We all have to make choices and we are all very good at avoiding them. I try to remember this when writing. Characters, like people, are constantly rationalising their actions and justifying their choices. Yet, their choices don't always have to be rational (because most people don't make rational choices in the end). Thanks for sharing this post and I hope the cake was nice.
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." ~Neil Peart~
What a great quote. And very true, though sometimes I wish it weren't. I hope you went for the chocolate cake--some days a treat is in order.
I like your mom's quote best. I guess we all look at things (and people) and decide to take them or leave them. Let's hope that the young man your darling picks becomes worthy of her choosing.
Perhaps he could learn how to bake chocolate cake?
Anyone who quotes Rush is okay in my book.
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