Twists & Turns: Choices We Make

GOOD CHOICES: (USU-ALLY THE HARDEST ROAD)

Be nice to people. Even if they aren’t always nice to you. Just remember: What goes around comes around. And sometimes you get to see it happen.

Be careful how you spend your money. Start saving early. Be watchful of “Too good to be true” scams. Don’t worry about what other people think of you. It could cause you to make bad choices. And besides, who made them any better than you?

Marry the right person (no matter how many tries it takes). Life is tough. Men and women both need to be happy and satisfied.

Do not judge others. You can’t always know why they made a particular choice.

Notable exception: During SEC football season when they pick the wrong team.

There are lots of other ways to make good choices. My advice is: If you choose the hardest road, you are probably on the right one.

BAD CHOICES: (UNFORTUNATELY, FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE THIS IS THE EASIEST ROAD)

Put yourself first ahead of everyone else.

Spoil your children and they will love you, right?

Get angry very easily and take it out on those around you.

Never look past today. This means don’t plan ahead. If the car needs gas, let somebody else get it.

When someone offers you drugs or alcohol, grab em up. It’s a great way to leave all your responsibilities behind and forget real life.

Be wasteful. This includes buying stuff you do not really need.

Litter. Let trash ‘literally’ fly out of the back of your truck or car window. Especially after someone else has worked to clean the roadway up.

Be rude to people.

Be mean to animals.

Curse all the time. Pepper your conversation with ugly words. It makes you look smart, right?

Break every one of the ten commandments.

Whew! I think that covers most of it.

MIDDLE GROUND (USU-ALLY THE SAFEST ROAD)

Try not to lash out when you are angry.

Try not to argue with your spouse, (especially if they are the ‘right’ one). Try to encourage your loved ones. Cheer them on. Uplift them. I’m using the word TRY a lot because sometimes things just slip past.

EXAMPLES OF

MIDDLE GROUND LIVING

I got extremely angry about something recently and my nephew, Stephen, was quite shocked to hear me curse. “Aunt Judy!,” he exclaimed, “I have never heard you say that!” I guess older people are expected to never make a “Bad” choice. Probably because we should be old enough to know better. Yeah, right.

But, I did feel terrible and apologized for my complete lack of verbal control and breach of southern eitquette. I apologized and vowed to never say such a thing again. At least not in front of him.

As for arguing with that wonderful spouse, I’ll again use myself as an example. Maybe you will be able to identify with it a bit…or a lot.

I love pillows and chairs. However, Teddy and I disagree on the amount. One recent conversation went something like this:

He walked into one of the extra bedrooms the other day, swiped a whole batch of carefully placed pillows off the bed and stated, “We don’t need all of this. Guests just end up taking them off the bed anyway.”

Instead of launching a lamp at him, I took the middle ground and answered, “It’s only pillows. I’m not asking them to share the bed with a stuffed animal collection. And besides, they can easily put the pillows in the chair.” “

Then where do they sit?” He persisted. COME SEE DR. LAMPTON AT THE FRYE/MAGNOLIA CLINIC BUILDING LOCATED AT 111 MAGNOLIA STREET!!! RICKY NOBILES CARTOONS, SEE A2 & A3 (SEE TWISTS & TURNS, PAGE A3)

Sighing heavily, I answered, “Honey, people do not sit in bedrooms. If they are visiting, we will all sit out on the screened-in porch or in the living room.

Now he decided to make a slightly worse choice in this case and continued with his sarcasm. “Oh, so that’s why we could host an entire baseball team in there. And if you bring in all the other chairs that seem to be reproducing like rabbits, we could host the manager and a few umpires too.”

I couldn’t get mad at thig because, sadly, he isn’t wrong. Almost every time I go to an antique shop I return with another one from the last century. What can I say, the older ones have more character and are sturdier.

For my last personal example, offering encouragement definitely goes both ways. I have decided that the word ‘encouragement’ is a synonym for “don’t nag”. Recently, Teddy decided to get out more and change his diet to lose weight. Within a disgustingly short period of time, he lost 20 pounds. I only ate a handful of pistachios for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch and rode my elliptical like I was trying to get in shape to run the Boston Marathon, and I gained five pounds. The only smart choice here was to congratulate him and smile. This also helps keep you from grinding your teeth.

Truth is, all of humanity is a work in progress. We are constantly confronted with a variety of choices, and we can’t possibly always make the right ones as we are all still changing and adapting every day.

This takes work and it reminds me of the road sign that says, “Caution Road Work Ahead”.

Finally, I have also found that if you TRY to laugh at yourself instead of being offended by every little thing, life will be easier.

Of course, you should always endeavor to make the right choices but staying in the middle ground is perfectly okay too. This way I think you will make it across the road of life without being run down by someone who makes the very BAD choice to speed in a construction zone.

Be good to yourself and others and stay safe out there!