Have you ever thought about which side of the bagel you prefer?  Assuming, of course, that you like, or have ever eaten a bagel. Also assuming, that the bagel is sliced horizontally, and not vertically.  I’m not sure why one would slice a bagel vertically, it would drastically reduce the spreadable surface which people use for butter, cream cheese, peanut butter, or some other spreadable. However, I may be missing something altogether with by not slicing a bagel vertically…..

Regardless, your bagel is sliced horizontally, and you have two fairly even surface areas to apply your topping of choice. But the halves are not considered equal. One half takes precedence, both in the eaters tasting preference, and in the order in which they are consumed.

Let’s say, that you and I are alike, and we eat bagels in a similar way, even regarding the topping of choice, of which cream cheese receives my endorsement.  The side that we typically eat first, would be the bottom of the bagel. Why? Because it’s my least favorite side. It is typically less flavorful, tends to be drier than the top, and somehow always ends up being thinner than the top, resulting in a less pleasing bite. We save the top to eat second, because there is more flavor via small toppings or baked in.  Be it blueberry, or sesame seeds, or everything, or onion, or cinnamon crunch, more of the flavor is on top. The top also has more moisture, and is usually thicker, and softer than the bottom, which means a more pleasing experience when one bites into it.

Are there outliers, those who prefer the opposites of what I do? Yes of course. Are there anomalies? Those that refuse to eat the side that they don’t like? I’m sure that there are those people.

Regardless of how you choose to eat the bagel, it still comes one way, whole.  You may enjoy the top first, or bottom, or only one half, but you don’t order half a bagel.

In the same way do you get to experience life. There are parts of life that are not as enjoyable as others, and we get to make choices in what we enjoy more or less.  We also get to choose the order in which we approach our experiences, whether we want to tackle the least pleasing aspects first, so we can enjoy the more pleasurable, or to have our bagel top first, then power through the less desirable.

To address the third, more questionable option, we must make a deliberate choice to cut out elements of life that we either see as highs or lows. We can live in melancholy, or total bliss, but we must essentially discard a piece of the whole in order to do so.

We are never sold, or provided half a bagel, we always get a full one. What we do with it, and how we consume it, lies with us. In the same we are never given half a life, we make the choice to decide how we experience it, or if we choose to cut out certain pieces.

Why would we ever live like half is good enough?

Humbly yours,

J