"I'd like to have my pie first and I will place the rest of the order later," the elderly man quietly explained to a somewhat puzzled waitress.
Sure enough, when he had lovingly devoured the pie he ordered a hot beef sandwich.
After I had paid for my takeout order, I could not help but inquire about the man's unusual eating sequence.
"Well, it's like this," he said..."Banana cream pie is my absolute favourite but sometimes I am too full after my main course and I do not enjoy it as much as I'd like to. So I always have my pie first and govern myself accordingly after that. Sometimes I enjoy my pie so much that I don't have anything else."
The explanation made sense to me and I completely understood.
There is a life lesson here.
In my working days when faced with a list of things to do in a given period of time, I would tackle the difficult, less savoury chores first and leave the thing(s) that I do best until last because I knew that I could do it faster as crunch time loomed. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. There were times when I was too rushed at deadline to finish up with my best effort, hence I was stressed and robbed myself of the satisfaction of living up to expectations.
As I grew older in retirement, I learned to be more like the man and his banana cream pie...With qualifications, I have my enjoyment up front each day, If I do not have room for the other mundane things, I know they will be there for me another day. At least I have enjoyed myself when I can...That particular enjoyment may never present itself again another day.
In fact there may never be another day.
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