Two kinds of people

You know the old word game:  “There are two kinds of people…”  As in, “There are two kinds of people, those who like chocolate and those who like vanilla; … those who live life on the edge and those who play it safe; …those who see the glass half full…”, and so it goes.  Well, I would like to suggest that there are also “two kinds of people, those who plan and those who don’t.”  As in most instances, even the planners are caught flat-footed at times, and even the non-planners make an effort when it’s a situation close to their heart.   But planners try to imagine worst case scenarios and anticipate.  

For instance, I’m a list maker.  And a check list maker for trips, so that we have basic remedies along and all the many toiletries that have become necessary so we can appear in public without frightening children and small animals.  When we travel, I always take snacks and water along, just in case there’s no appealing place to eat when we get hungry.  When driving on the freeway, I plan lane changes way ahead of time.  When leaving the house for errands, I try to figure out the simplest, easiest way to head directly for the furthest stop and then line stops up so that there’s minimal backtracking, and I try to avoid the freeway when at all possible.  My spouse, on the other hand, often wants to take a free way route that will definitely be backed up to stopping status, because that’s the way the traffic is around here unless it’s very early on New Years’ Day or the other few holidays when people sleep in.   Why does he want to do that?   Because he delights in driving at freeway speeds and forgets, time after time, that those freeway speeds are meaningless when the traffic is stopped and everyone on the left is trying to cross two lanes to exit, and everyone on the right wants – you guessed it – to move to the left.  Because he truly believes that it is faster to go on the freeway than to go a back way and encounter stop signs and traffic lights.  Uh-huh.

So, I guess the final, ultimate expression of this word game would be:  “There are two kinds of people, men and women.”