[Note: All I want for Christmas is for you to like my new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/viewcheapseats. Thanks!]
I like to eat breakfast. I have a habit of getting on one particular breakfast food and staying with it for a while. Eventually, I will try something else, and that will be the food of choice for starting off the day. Because Sonic is right down the road from my office and easily accessible, that is the source of my breakfast food most days during the week.
For a long time, I ate a grilled chicken sandwich for breakfast. While this is not what you normally think of as breakfast food, I figure it is healthier than most foods, and they are good. For a while, I was going for the grilled chicken wrap. Good, but not very exciting. Then, Sonic came out with a new chipotle breakfast burrito. I immediately jumped on the breakfast burrito bandwagon and did not look back. Sometimes, if I was really hungry, I would order double meat.
I was comfortable with my breakfast rut until something happened that changed everything. I asked a law clerk to go get me a burrito one morning and specifically told him I wanted double beef on my burrito. When my burrito arrived, it was made with chicken instead of beef. My immediate reaction was less than pleasant. I was ready for the normal, and my plans were thrown awry. One of my many shortcomings is my often negative reaction to change. I don’t like it.
Being very hungry, I had no qualms about eating the unordered burrito, but I would lie if I said I didn’t complain about it to several folks at the James Law Firm who were unlucky enough to be in the area. I didn’t gripe for long because everyone seemed to make themselves scarce and left me alone with my imposter burrito.
It only took one bite for me to realize that I actually liked the chicken version of the breakfast burrito better than I liked the beef version. I really am a fan of chicken, but I seem to eat more beef than chicken. Maybe that is because beef seems manlier. Maybe the Chic-Fil-A folks need to consider this gender phobia and dress the cows in their advertisements in feminine attire. The slogan could be “Be a man – eat CHICKEN.” Maybe not. The point is the chicken was great, and I have eaten that particular “special order” breakfast burrito just about every day since then.
For many of us, life is funny that way. We live the “same” days over and over again, and we do all we can to keep things the way they are or at least the way we like to think things were back in the good old days. Sometimes, the need to keep things the same does nothing but keep you in a rut. As a wise attorney once told me, a rut is nothing more than a grave without ends. This comparison seems a little dramatic, but it is certainly something to think about.
As you roll through the holiday season, keep your eyes open for new things and different ways to spend your time. Enjoy yourself, but don’t get caught up in the concern that things need to happen a certain way. The more rigid your expectations, the harder it will be to enjoy the surprises that come your way over the next month. Surprises by definition are unexpected, but they always add spice to your life. That is true for everyone, especially those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Arkansas. His primary area of practice is criminal defense. He can be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com