240201 Better

My mother used to say, “it’s better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

Before I get into today’s short rendition, I want to tell you where yesterday’s piece about the wrong side of the bed came from. My chief investigator who does all of my research while tucked away in his hidden castle somewhere in the state of Idaho sent me this background information on the origin of the wrong side of the bed. The ancient Romans always got out of bed on the right side, believing that brought them good luck all day long and getting up on the left side of the bed brought them bad luck all day long. That must have worked for them because they did at one time conquer over half the known world. That is a historical fact, but it leaves me to wonder about which side was the right side of the bed? If one approaches the bed from the foot of the bed, the right side would correspond to his right arm. Once he is in bed, then his right side is now on the left side of the bed. This seems to be an enigma inside another enigma. I don’t know how they worked that out back then.

On to the devil I know. The devil I know lives upstairs upstairs from my apartment. He is a hulking man who lives with his menagere of dogs and cats. When he walks the floors it sounds like thunder as his massive 300 pounds shatters the quiet in my abode below. His new dog, “sir barks a lot” is on a barking rampage all of the time. The dog is a tiny mutt that shows its fear of everything by barking only stopping to eat or sleep. That’s the devil I know. Now on to the devil I don’t know. That devil may be awaiting me in the next apartment I transfer to. There have been worse people living here before. In fact the ones who lived across the hall until last February were noisy, filthy, loud all of the time and had a giant white dog that terrorized everyone, including me. When they left the apartment the dog howled and cried until someone came back to the apartment.
There is a 50-50 chance that the apartment I move to will have neighbors worse than what I have now.

Perhaps mom was right, the devil I know may not be as bad as the devil I don’t know. Life is challenging these days; thankfully I have prayer, meditation and yoga to help me as I travel my path into the future. Do I take the path less traveled or follow the the path more taken? I shall ponder this today. As I write this, I'm thinking of a recent gift from my daughter. The gift is a black "T" shirt with the writing, "Hold on while I overthink this."