Joe's No

For as cantankerous as he could be, there were many axioms of me Grandpa Joe's which were rather profound in their own right. One was that, almost always, if you had to have an answer right now, this very moment, the answer is no.

I believe that part of the point was that he, personally, wasn't going to be rushed into anything. If Joe Cosgriff was going to do something it would be on his time and his way. Never mind, God love him, that when he wanted his way he didn't mind putting the rush on you. But to be fair, that typically involved work issues around the Shop. It was his Shop, so his rules. I get that; I even have a certain respect for it.

Yet beyond either of those points, there's something to be said for never (or almost never) being pressured into making a choice. It invites rash, unreflective thought processes. Yes, sometimes a decision must be made now, whenever there's a true emergency situation. We simply must do the best we can in such circumstances. Still, be honest: how often are we really facing that type of case?

Rushing into decisions is precisely what gets us into trouble. I will, yes, I will, use the recent COVID hysteria as an example. We were pressed into accepting extreme rules and extreme revisions in our lives, both personal and business. Panic overruled a rational thought process, and panic rarely affords us wise decision making. But something had to be done now, dammit.

What are we today because of that attitude? We have ruined lives, ruined businesses, and ruined friendships even. I know I've been unfriended by several on Facebook because of COVID rendering calm, clear thought into the abyss. And where are we at? Exactly where cooler heads way back in early 2020 when this all began predicted we would be: in a world where nothing we did had any actual affect on the virus or its spread. In a world where the virus was never so bad as the presumed experts within the scientific governmental complex insisted we would be. We aren't dying in record numbers. If we had, en masse, said no, we won't do it, we'd have avoided all sorts of calamity.

If someone has to have a decision now the answer should be no. Me Grandpa Joe said so, and I'm with him.