Over the years I’ve noticed that there is a seemingly inborn impulse among human beings to break things up into dichotomies.
Coke and Pepsi, Liberals and Conservatives, Gays and Straights, Us and Them: the typical mindset breaks the world down into opposing duets, ignoring all of the other possibilities.
While recognizing that there are other parties such as Libertarian or the Green Party, most Americans think in terms of a two-party system and believe that it’s always been that way, despite the early history of our country which had all sorts of different political parties.
This leads people to form spurious opinions. For example, in the most recent Presidential election, if someone didn’t support Bush it was automatically assumed that he or she supported Kerry.
The existence of other parties aside, there’s another option that wasn’t considered: not supporting anyone.
The dogmatic belief in the primacy of the dichotomy extends beyond political parties, though, and permeates all aspects of life.
For example, how often do you hear someone say, “You either love me or you hate me; there’s no in-between.”
Quite frankly, if those are the only options you give me, I’m pretty much guaranteed to head on over onto the hate side, but the fact of the matter is that establishing polar opposites as the only available choices in such a fashion is foolish.
There is, after all, always room for indifference.
I’m not really sure what my point is here (Is that another dichotomy? Pointed or Pointless?), but it’s something I’ve been meaning to address for a while, sitting gathering dust in the 99 Cent Bargain Bin of Ideas.
If there is a point, maybe it’s that our choices aren’t nearly so limited as we like to believe (fewer choices means having to do less thinking, after all), or maybe it’s just this: never underestimate the power of not caring.
Apathy is virtually always a viable third option.
Last night, feeling tired from the lack of sleep I’d gotten the night before, I went to bed relatively early, which ensured that, with some help from the garbage truck slamming a dumpster around, I would be up early this morning, which I was.
Though it was only ten to seven when the dumpster stopped rattling, I was sufficiently awake that it seemed pointless to go back to sleep, though I almost changed my mind about that when I remembered that I’ve established Wednesday mornings as the time during the week in which I squeeze in another workout.
Still, I was up, so I headed to the fitness center.
The last couple of weeks, though I’ve gone in at different times, I’ve managed to be there at the same time as the cleaning lady, who has demonstrated an unwillingness to work around me, so I assumed, correctly, that she wouldn’t in there this time, given how early it was.
However, the absence of the cleaning lady didn’t mean that I had the place to myself, as there was an Indian couple making use of the treadmill and lifecycle.
The man, who was on the treadmill, was wearing standard workout clothes. His wife, however, was peddling away in a sari, which just seemed odd.
After my workout I came home for my protein shake breakfast, and when nine o’clock rolled around I headed out for a walk.
While I was walking my cell phone rang. It was my dentist’s office asking if I could come in at two in the afternoon.
I tentatively agreed.
Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t have been an issue, as my calendar is usually wide open (like Grand Canyon wide), but yesterday Brian had sent an e-mail out indicating that he’d be up to seeing “Emily Rose” today, so I wasn’t sure if I’d be free.
However, it turned out to not be an issue, though this time it basically ended up being Scott who punked out on it. At first he said he’d be able to catch a show after two, which worked for me, but then later on he remembered that he wouldn’t actually be free until after four.
Ultimately it was decided that it just wasn’t going to happen today.
Of course, I’m not really as inclined to launch into Scott-bashing over this in the same way I pointlessly (and arbitrarily) bashed Brian the other day, given that Scott is my boss.
The decision we actually reached was to go see it tomorrow, as we’ll all be getting together for a meeting in the morning anyway, and there’s a multiplex not too far away from where we’ll be meeting.
In any case, the end result was that I was free to head in for my dentist appointment at two.
The appointment didn’t last long, as the reason he wanted me to come in was that my partials had come in – partially.
Basically, the wire frames sans the actual teeth had arrived, and the whole point of going in today was to make any necessary adjustments before the teeth are put on.
So the next step will be for him to send the frames back out to get the teeth put on, then when they come back it’ll be time for my final fitting. After that, I’ll only need one more appointment, apparently, and I’ll finally be done seeing him except for check-ups.
After more than two years, that will be a nice change of pace.
It will also free me up to put my flex money towards getting my eyes fixed.
Once that’s taken care of, I’ll be free to work on my mental problems…nah, some things just can’t be fixed.
On my way home from the dentist I stopped at Safeway to pick up some things I needed for dinner and…you know, it’s always awkward when you bump into your ex. You never really know what to say, or how to act. Should you just try to play it off like it’s funny? Pretend not to even notice?
It’s a difficult circumstance, as there are just so many conflicting emotions that bubble up to the surface.
It makes it even worse when you see your ex with someone else.
In my case today, I didn’t say a word. I just shook my head and sighed.
No, I didn’t see my ex-wife in the Safeway. That would be extremely unlikely, as she lives over a thousand miles away.
I’m talking about an “ex” that I had much stronger feelings for: Killian’s Irish Red.
For years, Killian’s was my beer of choice. It was the first beer I ever loved.
And did I ever love it.
I’m sure it sounds silly to talk about a beer in these terms, but that would be why you’re not the one who has a drinking problem, wouldn’t it?
In all honesty, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I mean, I see all kinds of beer all the time, particularly at Safeway, which has the dairy case in the same aisle as the beer, but it just took me by surprise when I was standing in line and noticed that unmistakable horse head logo on the six-pack that was sitting on the belt separated from my milk and tomato sauce only by one of those little grocery dividers.
The “ex” metaphor occurred to me when I was walking out the door, and I thought that it was worth sharing here.
For some reason I thought that my beloved Rachael Leigh Cook was in the cast of a new show that’s debuting tonight, so it had been my intention to check it out. Turns out I was wrong about that, and I honestly have no idea why I ever thought she was part of the cast.
The show, “Head Cases,” doesn’t look interesting enough for me to watch without RLC, which is just as well, as this season already has me adding too many new shows to my viewing schedule.
In any case, that’s going to do it for this entry.
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