After my voice lesson today, I decided to stop at the Red Mug in Superior for a mocha.
I waffled over the 12 oz. and the 16 oz., and I decided for the 12 oz. because I would have change for a tip. I neglected sales tax, which would have given me hang for a tip in either case.
I also wanted to access the web with my iPod, but I had to have a userID and password. I could hardly see what was needed because the log-in page was dark print on a dark red background. I did get the info from a barista, but I had trouble because the userID was case sensitive.
I eventually got online, read several articles in The Huffington Post, and drank my mocha. When the mocha was done, I went out to my car. Surprise! Traffic was backed up from the railroad crossing to my car. I wasn't going anywhere until the train was through the crossing and the backed-up traffic had moved forward.
My first stop after the coffee stop was at a bank to get a roll of quarters for our morning newspapers. After I parked my car and walked to the bank, I checked my watch. It was four minutes to five. The bank would close soon. I made it and got my roll of quarters.
What if I hadn't gotten the quarters. I might not have walked to the corner tomorrow for the newspapers but gone elsewhere. If I went elsewhere for the newspapers, what chain of events might have been set in motion.
Consider the ifs that could have changed the whole afternoon:
If I had not stopped for a mocha,
If I had ordered a different size,
If I had not used my iPod,
If Huffington Post had published less or more articles that caught my interest,
If the train had been shorter or longer or earlier or later,
If I had parked at the bank rather than nearby stores, and
If who knows what else.
Think of all the big and little things that have happened because one small thing was changed. What if somebody who became a CEO had started with a different company? What if an inventor hadn't made a certain mistake? What if a guard hadn't been sleepy on a certain night?
We'll never know. The person could have become CEO of one of several companies. The inventor could have done any one of different things that would have led to his invention. The guard could have been sleepy on any other night except that one. Or no matter what any of these people did, their lives might have been humble and uneventful, relatively speaking.
