Fifty-Fifty

Here we are, two days before the next election, and all of the races look like they could go either way.  I voted a couple of weeks ago, and I have not seen anything that has me second-guessing my votes.

It’s been a good week, one that was a bit less demanding than many of the weeks preceding it.  But I have developed a head cold. It’s like my body waited until I had a little down time before it succumbed to the stresses of life, and the germs of Fall.  So far it’s not too debilitating.  A fair amount of sneezing and blowing of my nose, but I have plenty of energy and no fever.  So do I get on that flight later today, to surprise a friend celebrating their 50th birthday?  If I slug back some DayQuil to dry out my sinuses, I might be able to present a pretty normal version of myself.  But how many other people, between the plane and the birthday party, would receive the gift of my germs?

On any given day, I could be the friend insisting that my buddy with a head cold still come visit me.  I’ve also been the person wondering why that snotty, sneezy person didn’t just stay home.  Of course both Lori and I regularly intersect with older people, and don’t want to be the source of illness for them.

I’m still not completely committed to staying home or going to this party in another city.  But if I were to flip a coin, I know which way I would want it to land while it was still hanging in the air.  I think that is the best rubric we can apply when faced with fifty-fifty choices.  Toss the coin, then notice where your mind goes.  

Decide, then commit.  The very nature of the decision means that you will still feel you chose wrong fairly often - but that’s only from the perspective of hindsight.  Hindsight is always more informed than foresight, so don’t let that overinflate your inner critic.  Decide, then commit.

The concept of Fifty-Fifty also reminds me of Lovely’s FiftyFifty, the wonderful pizza shop in Portland, Oregon headed by Sarah Minnick.  When planning the restaurant, she expected the sales of Pizza and Ice Cream (in addition to Netflix-worthy pizza, they also make world class ice cream) to be split roughly evenly.  I suspect she sells more pies, but again - that’s hindsight.

So life gives us plenty of coin-toss decisions to make.  The randomness of it sometimes yields long streaks of either heads or tails outcomes.  Over and over, same result.  If you ever feel like you are caught in such a string, just keeping flipping those coins.  It will work itself out.  Somewhere down the line is another streak where the coin will land the other way, reverting the trend back to the mean.

Keep flipping, keep deciding, keep moving.

Sunday Supper
This Texas Chili Con Carne sounds good on a chilly Fall day.  And this brassica-centric Fall salad might deserve an audition for your upcoming Thanksgiving table.

Sunday Music
A few weeks ago, the guitarist Julian Lage joined the jam band Goose in Chicago and the result was pretty magical.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,