Posted on 2024-07-09 Taking chances By Vivian Heyl My husband, Larry, and I spent many years of our lives running a computer business. He has a degree in computer science and developed applications for businesses to meet their specific needs. He also helped them put procedures into place that would help each business get the most benefit from the applications he had written. I have a degree in English. I helped with many aspects of the computer business including customer support and training. During the initial installation of any new software we would have a training class for the staff. He would explain how the new program worked and the procedures that were needed for it to run accurately. Then I would explain to them what he had just said. Words are funny things. No matter how exact we think we have expressed something, someone will always misunderstand or misinterpret what we have said. Larry explains it this way. Tell the class when the opening screen comes up there will be two choices, yes or no, always press yes. Have them practice it more than once. The next day when the screen comes up half the class will press yes and half will press no. As human beings, rationalization is an important part of our intellectual process. If we don’t know or remember the answer we will try to rationalize what the correct response is. If there are only two responses offered, which one is the safest? It is my conjecture that those who hit no at the opening screen have determined that this is the safest answer. If we’re not sure what is going to happen if we hit yes then maybe it is not a good idea to choose it. Choosing yes seems to be a challenge for many people. Life is full of missed opportunities because we pressed no when we should have pressed yes. If we never give yes a chance how will we learn what more life has to offer us? Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” was standard fare for English classes as I traveled through my school years. This closing stanza explains choices the best. “Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” This poem speaks to me about my own difficulties with taking chances. When I have two choices I will most likely take the one that seems safest, with the most likelihood of succeeding, but I will never know what would have happened had I taken a chance on the other one. I’ve made a few attempts at adventuring, but taking paths that have twists and turns and occasional obstructions is not comfortable for me. I like to know where I am going and how I’m getting there. Those few attempts, however, were enough to teach me that sometimes twists and turns can provide exciting opportunities that I would have otherwise missed out on and the occasional obstructions gave me a chance to learn and grow. No matter what that old adage says, you are never too old to learn. Making choices is built into our everyday life. We can’t escape them so let’s embrace them. The next time the screen comes up and says, yes or no, press yes and let’s see what happens. --- Originally published in The Times Dispatch on June 25, 2014.