We always think what we cannot see is better than what we have before us.

I know I think that way sometimes.  It’s like that show, “Let’s Make a Deal,” which I cannot tear my eyes from when it’s in the middle of a deal.

The general idea is you are offered a chance to open 1 of 3 doors.  Or, you can take a lump sum amount of money, like $500.  It gets more complicated if you pass on your turn and give the chance for someone else (thinking that that person’s choice, say Door #2 is going to reveal a bag of birdfeed) so you can increase your odds of winning something huge (like a NEW CAAAARRR!)…

But if that person opens door #2 with the car behind it, sometimes you get left with the birdfeed.  It all depends on how you play the game.

Lately, I’ve been wondering how often I approach life like a game, scheming, planning, organizing, gambling away decisions and processes in hopes that I will end up with a great result in my lap.  I assume, oftentimes, that other people have it so much easier than I do.  With work, family, a spouse in school, a sister getting married, editors’ deadlines to respect, my own dreams to pursue — sometimes I look at someone else’s Door Number 2 and think, “They have it so much better than me,” without even really seeing what’s behind their door.  I assume.

I belong to a gym and everytime I am in the locker room, it’s like a jungle trying to find an available locker.  The sign that a locker is available is the hanging key off the lock.  Along some of the walls in the locker room are tagged lockers “Luxury Boxes” for the VIPs.  I always want to sneak a peak inside and see what’s so special about the VIP Luxury Box.  Mine only have a chrome bar and two hooks, which is all you really need for a gym locker, but I wanted to know what made the luxury box so luxurious.  Maybe their hooks have extra teeth so they can hang more things.  Maybe they get shampoos and special towels.  Maybe they have shelves and maybe, maybe, maybe….

Today I got into the luxury box.

Nothing.  It was the exact chrome bar, exact same hooks.

The only difference is that there was a tag calling it the Luxury Box.  I think sometimes people fall for the hype, willingly believing that the title telling us we’re special and we have something spectacular reserved for us behind Door Number 2 means we are indeed special and deserving of spectacular things.

Inside, though, it’s all the same.