A Cunning Plan

The timeless sage Yogi Berra once said, ” you better have a plan about where you goin, or you’ll end up somewhere else.” After months of strategizing, planning and agonizing we have become permanent residents of 92128.

Most people who have reached their sixties-and beyond- have done some serious planning and when that that little bit of intentionality meets opportunity we have a chance to retire in the long grass of 92128. I have been watching my neighbors, listening and observing their planning strategies. There is a spectrum that arcs from the simplest evaluation to intense, detailed stratagems designed to remove all vicissitudes.

My favorite example of brilliant planning is the method employed by one of my friends. He is a Scotch drinker and very particular about his brand. One day he showed up at my door with a large bottle of good whiskey and asked what cupboard he should put it in. I don’t drink, so I was a bit baffled. Sensing my confusion he explained,” this is for the time I visit…you won’t have to worry about having the right stuff.”

Booze cacheing is a very advanced form of planning, indeed.

In other 92128 homes I have walked in on floors dotted with hardware piles, furniture pieces and confusing instruction manuals. These are the people who have been to Ikea. I never array the hardware in these kits before I begin wrestling some Swedish nightmare into being and this lack of planning has caused frustration, anxiety and fear of failure. In 92128 all like machined screws are in discreet piles ready for use.

The bicyclists have their own planning rituals and hey sit behind their piles of tools, snacks, inner-tubes, patch kits and CO2 cartridges. They have highlighted maps of the up-coming ride and they carbo-load with great attention.

The hobbyists check their fishing lures, their woodworking tools and their golf clubs.

92128 is a planners paradise.

Travellers- A very large subset- are bent over maps and itineraries and lists of needs from luggage to lip gloss.

It may be a function of age…the fear of the spontaneous and the -un foreseen- that prompts this intense attention to detail. What is great about the process is that we are all looking toward a better, more interesting future. Our days of backpacking around Europe and Banzai road trips are long gone. Our planning now revolves around ease and comfort …and economy.

If you see an older person that appears to be doing nothing, think twice. They are up to something.