Have
you ever considered something that you do, something you would
consider normal and average and random and frequent, that you
know others do differently?
Consider
butter.
Terry
loves to just hack away at the butter dish. I’m more of a side-to-side
cutting away squares with my approach.
We
both have our reasons. Terry, it turns out, is looking for the
softest butter so it will spread smoothly on her toast and whatnot.
If that means scraping across the top or digging a hunk out of
the middle of a stick, so be it. With me, upon consideration,
it’s somewhat habitual. Just the way I’ve always done it.
Now,
you may have noticed I said “it turns out” when diving into Terry’s
approach to obtaining some butter. That’s because I asked her.
And, yes, she paused before responding as if wondering what the
hell I was thinking with such a question. Then, three responses:
(1) As far as she can recall, she’s always done that. (2) She
knows she’s looking for a soft spot. And, (3) the look she was
giving me suggested no matter how much a hacked stick of butter
might drive me bonkers, she wasn’t going to change her approach
and I needed to accept that.
And
accept it I do. Still, I wonder about some things. Methods that
many folks seem to consider the way of doing things. And yet…
to put a twist on the idea with a specific scenario for a general
concept… there exists the vast and near unanimous understanding
from all of us that recognizes the only acceptable topping on
a hot dog is mustard.
(Ok.
I could sense some of you pull away at that. I am not saying relish
and onions are out of line when dressing up your frankfurter.
I have absolutely been drawn in by a fresh poppy seed bun and
a Chicago-style dog. What am I saying is ketchup has no place
on a hot dog. In fact, a tightly closed, never touched bottle
of ketchup has no place on a table where hot dogs are being served.
That’s what I mean.)
Food
and cooking are just the tip of the iceberg though. It’s more
than that.
I
know there are people that could watch me mow my lawn, and before
I even make a first pass with my ride on mower they’d try to explain
that I was doing it wrong. People that can’t understand why we
picked the drawer we use for our knives, forks and spoons since
they so obviously should be in another. People that don’t…well…
We
disagree.
But
when it comes to the preferred way any of us have of doing things,
I occasionally take off on a tangent of wondering how those became
preferred. Why do some of us reach for the salt and pepper before
tasting our food?
Maybe
the question isn’t trying to figure out how do you approach an
effort, it’s using why - why do you… - as the only phrasing. Habits?
Experience? Because it just seems the way it should be done? Why
do you do that?
In
many cases, consider Terry and the butter. Because I truly believe
in many instances, we’d find out that we don’t even know we are
doing it (never mind why we’re doing it that way). Except for
the mustard. We’re all in agreement on that.