Wednesday morning rant

In Geneva, a very persistent guy kept inviting a friend of mine out for coffee; she kept saying no. At one point, he asked, and she said, "You know, I'm very busy; I just can't." To which he replied, "Il y a un adage: vouloir c'est pouvoir."

We spent a lot of time laughing over that brazen cluelessness, as we did over his initial encounter with this friend--he'd followed her across the parking lot--when she saw him, she thought she must have dropped something, hence the urgency of his pursuit, but no--he was just so impressed by her that he had to catch up with her, and followed her a good half mile out of his way from the bus stop. Kate put it brilliantly and Britishly: "You did what? You sad bastard. And you think that's going to make me fancy you?" There's a reason we have missed connections columns: it's just bad form to stalk someone as they go about their business. But I digress.

It is another adage I wanted to expound upon today. When I first heard it, in an otherwise excellent leadership class I took through my previous job, I pretty much rolled my eyes. Then, throughout both days of the critical thinking class I took for my current job, the instructor reiterated it every hour or so: "If you always do what you've always done the way you've always done it, you'll always get what you've always gotten."

Trite but (mostly) true.

I regularly apply that to Gracie, even though she's pea-brained, so I don't actually expect critical thinking on her part. Nonetheless, I have to ask: how have I reacted previously when you've decided to leave me gifts outside the litter box? Have you ever been fed before your breakfast or dinner time by virtue of your persistent whining? Why do you think this time it will be different? Seriously-- even you can handle basic logic, right?

My mother and my roommate are both quite intelligent. They're both engineers, so you'd think logic would be their forte. And yet...

I thought about this with regard to RM and the chocolate (not to mention with regard to RM and trying to be my friend in general). This morning, mom reminded me of this second adage, too.

I didn't go to bed especially early; I probably turned my phone off around 10pm, like I normally do. This morning, I turned it on to a message from my mother (she says she tried to reach me on Skype but couldn't, which would be because my computer, too, was if not off, asleep. She knows that you can't reach someone on Skype when they're not online. She also knows that I turn my phone off around 10pm. And yet!

And so, I reiterate that adage, which was told to me so I could apply it proactively to my career rather than apply it sarcastically to other people, but let's consider the latter as a baby step. Here it is: "If you always do what you've always done the way you've always done it, you'll always get what you've always gotten."