I loved the old series on TV, Bewitched, with Elizabeth Montgomery. Today, I noticed it is Dick Sargent’s (Richard Stanford Cox) birthday, born April 19, 1930. He is the actor who played Darrin on Bewitched. He passed away in 1994 for those who were wondering.
Anyway, there were two Darrin’s on the show, Dick Sargent and Dick York. And everyone who was a fan of the show had a favorite Darrin. I’ve heard some serious arguments break out over the “Darrin Debate.”
That is how we go, we humans. We have our favorites. Our choices. They say an adult makes about 35,000 conscious decisions each day. This way, or that.
But our favorites are our favorites. Say we visit a friend’s house for dinner, and for dessert, they offer cookies or cake? Most people are adamant about which is better, the slice of chocolate cake or the chocolate chip cookie, perhaps.
Along the food lines, there are some other standouts, this or that.
Hamburger or hotdog.
Waffle or pancake.
Steak or chicken.
Veggie or fruit.
Soup or sandwich.
Coffee or tea.
Coke or Pepsi.
I’m betting ten different people would have ten different answers.
The thing that drives what we choose is our past experience, I would say. It starts from our earliest moments, all this data being fed into our little spongy brains. The things we like and dislike. What we were taught was “yucky” or “good.”
I can remember when I was probably five or six, our whole family got in the station wagon, and we drove up to Pennsylvania for a trip. Our first stop was to visit the family of a college buddy of my Dad’s. When we finally piled out of the car, we were famished. And Mrs. Knox had made us a “special” lunch of waffles, topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.
I am sure most kids would have loved this. But our family was raised on protein. We didn’t have a lot of sweets, and certainly not for a meal. We had been hoping for some nice bologna sandwiches and corn chips. We quietly ate our lunches, but after, I can remember all of us feeling half sick.
Those choices don’t stop with food. They go on to every corner of our lives.
Cat or dog.
Batman or Superman.
Mac or PC.
Beach or mountain.
Shower or bath.
Paper or plastic.
Glove or mitten.
Rose or daisy.
Another story from my past. Because new isn’t always better. In that Kronenberger kitchen, we sat at a large white Formica table. And placed around were eight to ten plastic chairs. They were turquoise blue and scoopy, with metal legs, as I recall. We had a linoleum floor too. I liked that setup, me of little being. The chairs were light and easy to move. When it was my turn to sweep the kitchen floor, it made things a whole lot easier.
But then we “new and improved” ourselves, into a new era. We got industrial-style carpet in our kitchen, a faux wooden table, and chairs with cushions. It was all very mod, I’m sure. But the chairs were heavy, and moving them on the carpet was ungodly. And when it was my turn to sweep the floor, I thought someone had surely locked me in the tower of London for my turn at torture.
My choice between the two was driven by what was more agreeable to me. The thing that made my life easier. Of course, there wasn’t any getting the old kitchen back, as no one consulted me on the aesthetics of our home.
Marker or crayon.
Ballet or opera.
City or country.
Cold or hot.
Over or under.
Sometimes, we make bad choices, despite our best efforts. Other times, we pick something, and it turns out to be a stroke of good luck. Most of the time, though, we try to make well-informed decisions in all of this.
I can only say. Our choices are our own. And I always hope to make a good one. Today, and every day, I wish the same for you.
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“We are our choices.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
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“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
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“We don’t get to chose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.”
― Kami Garcia, Beautiful Darkness
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This or that, the choice is ours. Taco or Burger.
