A child tests the new mattress as an excuse to be in a bed other than his own. |
Over the past two weeks we’ve purchased a new mattress, had a
plumber reroute a gas line, and prepared nachos in a microwave. Each of the tasks posed its own unique
challenge of dealing with uncertainty.
What do most people put on nachos anyway? Right, you don’t
have a clue beyond the cheese. I ended up putting kale, salmon, and muenster
cheese on one plate. I did so not because I live in the quaint hamlet of Portland,
but rather I celebrate freedom from cheddar by conscientiously cheesifying with
bold new flavors. In this regard I celebrate the uncertainty of an audacious
culinary experiment -- and it paid off
in…decent tasteing food.
With the plumber I felt a bit uncomfortable describing what
my house looked like, and what the problem was. I pride myself on having lots
of words to use when certain other words are needed to tell stuff to people. I
felt I came from a foreign land, lacking the proper knowledge and vocabulary to
describe what was right in front of me. I didn’t know if I had a “slab house,”
how thick or high the “curtain wall” was, or if my water heater had an
automatic pilot restart.
Despite a patient attitude, the plumber had to preview the
job. As he was a professional he was able to avoid outright mocking my lack of
knowledge about our house. For that I will give him a great Yelp review.
The final major act of analyzing uncertainty came when we purchased
a new mattress. We arrived at the store on a Saturday after lunch and planned
on taking our time to make a purchase. We lay on so many beds I began to doubt
what felt comfortable. I realize there is no right answer, but we ended up
moving from a firm mattress to a medium one. So far so good, I’m sleeping well.
I suppose the big life lesson from all of this is try to
have some self-confidence and do the best you can – hardly a respite from a
myriad of nagging doubt, but sometimes we get lucky.
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