Much Ado About Nothing Much

 The older I become, the more I realize that we spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about the things we do (or don't) do. While I understand that the survival mechanism requires us to make lots of decisions, it doesn't require that we dither about them, and yet we do--at least I do. This, I expect, is because we do not spend all of our waking hours absorbed in basic survival mode. Quite frankly, I'm okay with not having to watch my back all the time, in the likelihood that a hoard of invaders want to kill me. On the other hand, surely I have more going on than whether I overspent for a pair of mauve socks. Surely.

But, that is what people do. We spend time, energy, and other cerebral resources to assure ourselves that we are not gullible, unreliable judges of our own fortunes. And, if you stop for a moment, no matter what decision you make, it is 100% likely that you'll make another (assuming you are not reading this from the afterlife.) Perhaps it is the way we emblazon our memories into our cerebral cortex material for future recall. Perhaps this thing I think of as dithering is an evolutionary outcropping formed from lesser evolved people making a series of poor choices? We dither because we know that historically, not dithering has led to the termination of our relatives from the family of man.

Even as I write this, I speculate how much brainpower has been used up thinking about this rather trivial pursuit. Despite the admonition about the unexamined life, blah, blah. blah, perhaps the over-examined life is similarly less attractive to entertain as all it seems to do is kill off brain cells. 

So, as I pull the shade down on this particular meandering, I am left to wonder why I took this side road. Maybe, like the kid who looks forward to recess, I look forward to trundling to the mental jungle gym, splaying myself out upside down and letting the fresh blood of creative thought rush into my head. Well, the bell has rung and inside I will go again to become the student and try to make sense out of the educational process.