Avoid Endless Deliberation. . .

Anyone who has ever worked in the corporate sector, academia, or government at any level, will be familiar with the endless deliberation, dithering, and useless chatter of committee-based decision making. It seems we just loo-oove our committees. That must be because they prevent easy finger-pointing and accepting of responsibility if and when there is a snafu.

The longer I live, the more people, of all ages, I meet who seem to be incapable of making a decision. It might be as simple as deciding which shoes to put on in the morning, which local restaurant to visit for an evening meal, whether or not to ask that new gal out for a drink after work on Friday evening, or something more serious like whether or not to take that promotion and transfer recently offered to you by your company.

Regardless of the precise situation, there is invariably a great deal of hand wringing, apron twisting, and endless talk without a decision being reached. Arrggh!!! This phenomenon is not a recent development although it seems worse now than ever before. But we have certainly seen the problem reflected in popular entertainment like movies and TV for the last 20+ years at least. Watch almost any rerun of Seinfeld or Friends, for example, and you'll quickly see what I mean.

As average guys concerned with kicking up our everyday style several notches, let's work to change this annoying trend. Let's do our utmost to make conclusive decisions in all areas of our lives. Efficiently, in fairly short order, and without round after round of endless and self-indulgent deliberation. I am hardly suggesting careless disregard for others and rash action. What I do advocate, though, is for people to quickly take stock of a situation and its related possible choices, make a decision, and then stick to it. Grow up, act like a man, and own your decisions, guys. Accept the consequences, if there are any, and move forward to the best of your skills and abilities. Let's not live our own lives like Ally McBeal and forever row our figurative boat in circles without progressing in the river of life for Heaven's sake.

As for yours truly, I'm off to examine the contents of the upstairs hall closet and decide which of three odd jackets should go to the tailor's next for minor alterations. But wait! Maybe not. Oh, I don't know. What if I make the wrong decision? Someone, anyone, tell me what I ought to do. Let's meet up at Central Perk, grab a couple of lattes, and talk it to death. Yeah. That's it. Oh, thank you. I feel so much better now.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

AnonymousDecember 12, 2013 at 6:38 PM
Heinz,

This reminds me of a couple of quotes. I believe Mark Twain said "In my mind I have imagined thousands of terrible things, only a few of which have come true.' A definition of origin unknown to me: Camel: a horse designed by committee.

You have a great website. Keep up the good posts.

Dr.CSP

Classic Style

Search This Blog