all for one

Where to sit. What to wear. Whether to do homework or not. Everyone knows every teenaged decision is a complicated calculus that factors what everyone else is doing. If she does, then I will; if he does, I won't. If they will, I can't possibly. Why didn't you tell me that he won't? We preach at kids to rise above, sing the virtues of independent thought. Do the right thing regardless of whatever, whomever. It's so simple if not always so easy. Just do it. It's what we expect, or at least hope for.

One would think, then, or at least I would, that overpaid, overeducated men and women might be capable of at least the same effort, at least for one yes-or-no decision, whenever it has to be made. Apparently not, according to the early morning evidence, at least when precipitation and state funding are involved. Snow days are all about peer pressure; it's worse than the school cafeteria at noon. I'll close if you will; I won't if you don't. That MUST be what the big boys are saying, for nobody goes it alone. I've learned to check the closing list for three districts not mine in order to judge the odds of a phone call. The forecast doesn't change, neither the radar, but no one is closed and now everyone is, and only at the very last minute? I know nobody wants to look like an idiot, especially twice in a row, but six inches on top of sleet plus wind? Do these people really need their hands held?