March 3 | The Exceptions are the Rule

The exceptions to the rule: we write them off as flukes. We stick to our diets, our budgets, our morals, nine-hundred and ninety-nine times in a row until we end up in the one situation the rule simply could not have forseen and we have to act differently.

It’s the kind of moment we construct entire stories around, where the selfish billionaire sacrifices themselves to save the kids or the stuck-up teacher finally lets loose and has a great time. The exceptions stand out against a long backdrop of consistency, creating a character who strikes us as human or redeemed or, often, once and finally vilified. 

In our real lives, we spend most of our time worrying about the system. Getting the diet right. Crunching the numbers. Building a plan for the future.

That’s good, because most of our lives operate on systems we would largely never flirt with breaking—we might casually comment on eating a slice of cake that didn’t fit our macros in a manner we would never use to describe forgetting which side of the road we were supposed to drive on. 

So maybe we’re enthralled with breaking free of the systems we design for ourselves?

Maybe we need to design them a little more generously?

Or maybe we’re smart enough to design some part of our days around those same things we look for in stories—a sense of drama, that just because something happens one way nine-hundred and ninety-nine times in a row doesn’t mean it has to happen this way, this time?… Read the rest