peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

you can't have your cake & eat it, too.

or, say for instance, what you have is pecan pie. and, you really like pecan pie. you can't see that there's anything any better anywhere, anytime, anyhow. it's not a casual thing - you reviewed myriad choices before you chose pecan pie, then you chose it on purpose and with knowledge.

so, you're hanging out there with your pecan pie... la-la-la... hanging with the pie. then, out of no where comes a chess pie. well, hello chess pie! you didn't know there was CHESS pie. nobody told you there was CHESS pie. you looked at all the choices and coulda swored there was no. chess. pie.

but there it is. huh. look at that, undeniably staring you in the face - chess pie.

chess pie is your very favourite of all time. you're really sure about this - it's your favourite but you didn't know it was available. chess = fave. at least, you believe that it is your favourite.... that is, if you remember chess pie correctly, then yes, chess is it. but, you can't even get a taste of the chess pie because the stupid eejit pecan pie is sitting there like a toad grinning foolishly at you thinking you still want it when you don't. stupid pie.

what you'd like to do is make room for the chess pie, but the table is already full of plates. to make room, you could remove a plate. you could, potentially, throw a plate on the floor. you could throw that stupid pecan pie on the floor, break it. then you'd have room for the shiney new plate of chess pie. and, you'd also have a mess. hmmm.... you could, potentially, give the plate to the waitress. she will remove it cleanly for you, but you can't have it back. ever. it's going in the ashbin.

so, there you are. you've made a choice in a mutually exclusive situation. by definition, mutually exclusive means you can't have both, so you'd better be dawgone sure before you pick the pecan pie that pecan is what you want, because if a chess pie comes along later and looks appealing, you are SOL. and, really, the one thing you can count on after you've made your choice, after you've picked what's behind the curtain over door #3, after you've selected, voted, opted, designated, determined, drawn the line -- one thing you can count on is that AFTER, after is when the other choices all start to sparkle & shine.

did you make a mistake and choose too soon... or is the sparkle & shine only an illusion?

and, hell, what if what you really wanted was cake?