A Square Meal

"I want a hamburger, Dad," Elliot said.

"How do you ask?"  I asked him.

"May I please have a hamburger?"  Elliot said, very appropriately.

I studied his plate for a second.  He had already had a hot dog, green beans, and some potato chips.  I cut a hamburger in half and put one half on plate.

"Dad," he wailed.  "You cut it in half.  I wanted the whole thing!"

"You wouldn't have eaten the whole thing," I told him.  "If you are still hungry when you finish that, you can have the other half."

"But... but... Dad, I like square food and this is a rectangle!" 

I stifled a smile.  He was certainly correct that the burger had been square initially and cutting it in half made it rectangular,  but this was a reason I had never heard before.  I'm sure that Elliot thought that he wanted a whole burger, but it had nothing to do with the shape of the meat sitting in his plate.

In the same way, perhaps, there are many times that I want something and I work really hard to come up with reasons, good reasons why I want it.  And yet, if I am honest with myself, there is only one reason:  I want it.

As I think about it, it is really important that we are honest with ourselves about our motivations to get or, do things.  There is nothing more confusing than when we manufacture fake reasons to do things we just want to do.

In the end, rationalizations aren't worth much.  No more, really, than the difference in taste between square and rectangular food.