Two Pieces of Candy
Probability is good, is necessary, is the base of our peace with the world. It helps us live better. It's more or less like faith, but for those who believe in reason. As far as I know about myself, I believe in reason and I have faith. My faith destroys my reason, my reason brings doubts to my faith. Sometimes they get along in an harmonious mood. In the limit, it results in schizophrenic behavior (lol). But I have a long way to go to make peace with probabilities, even if the sun rises every morning (I wish people were as predictable as the sun) . Meanwhile I delight myself with good surprises. And that's the story I am going to tell today.
There I was, in the middle of traffic, on my way to the newspaper (by the way, I had a very nice day there) with a strong urge to go to the bathroom. In other words I wanted desperately to make pee. I quickly understood that I couldn't wait until I arrived at the newspaper, so, I stopped as soon as possible.
I entered a cafe and asked permission to use their bathroom. An old man who seemed to be the owner, said "yes" with a very strict face. So I went, and when I came back I asked him to sell me three pieces of chewing gum. And he did it with the same tough face. Suddenly he grabbed two chocolate candies from his pocket and gave them to me. I started to laugh, and he started to laugh. We didn't speak but I guess we understood each other's nature in a heartbeat: sometimes under a strict face there is a naughty person, a kid.
And this little story made my day. A good day, all day long. Sometimes happiness is these little moments.
We need probability to wake up in the morning. We need faith to believe that probability is not going to fail and we are not going to die the next day. And we sure need good surprises to give some salt and beauty to the world.
Regards,
Proverb