Would You Rather…
Last week, we played a rousing game of “Would You Rather,” with a deck of cards my sister bought along. I love a good “would you rather” question, but after the first one- “If you had a second head, would you rather have it facing the same way with full movement -OR- have it facing backwards fixed in place, unable to move?” my brother in law declared “I’m not playing this game!” and left the room. We eventually lured him back into the game and skipped the questions that were preposterous. Here are some of the more thought-provoking ones: “For the same amount of money, would you rather have a job you love and have to work 60 hours a week- OR- have a job you absolutely hate but only have to work 25 hours a week?” — Tough one. I voted for the second choice, but my son voted for the first, saying that working five hours a day at a job you absolutely hate would make your life miserable. “Would you rather be filthy rich- OR- command tremendous respect (but not both)?” —- We all gave the only correct answer (ha ha) which was, be filthy rich, except for my brother in law. It should be noted that he’s also the only person I know who does NOT want to win the lottery. “Would you rather be forced to watch The Sound of Music continuously for 48 hours- OR- drive cross-country with Barry Manilow singing on the radio the whole time?” BOTH! BOTH! I love The Sound of Music, and I would also love to drive cross-country. Having Barry Manilow playing the whole time wouldn’t ruin it for me at all. “Would you rather overcome your worst fears- OR- outsmart anyone who tries to screw you over?” This one led to an interesting discussion. The “outsmart” choosers said things like “Think what it would be like when you went to buy a car!” or “Think about all the corporations trying to screw you over!” True… I do feel like I’m getting screwed over in certain areas (hello, auto insurance) but I don’t feel like it’s personal. More like there are flaws in the system, rather than someone trying to screw me over personally. Rather, I think the thing that holds me back the most in life is fear. I couldn’t tell you exactly what I’m afraid of. What other people think? That I’ll look stupid? That I’m not good enough/smart enough/strong enough? I’m definitely getting better about this the older I get. I think most people get more confident and care less about what other people think as they get older. But I still see fear as my limiting factor. When am I going to overcome this? Do I really want my whole life to go by, and at the end wish I had done more instead of being afraid? That game of “Would You Rather,” which started with a question about having a second head, ended up giving me a lot to think about. Do you have an answer to any of these questions? Where would you position your second head? Top photo by Matt Walsh on Unsplash