Head Or Tail?

A friend calls to talk about a serious decision he is facing.  From previous conversations, it seemed like he had some reservations about the move, but that was not enough for him to drop the idea completely.  "I can" and "I should" continue to battle each other in his mind.

Once upon a time, I was faced with a hard decision.  After watching me squirm in fetal position for long enough, my dear friend, Helen, offered to help.  "Let's flip a coin.  Head for A, Tail for B.  Very simple."

"But this is such an important decision!  How can we leave it to a coin?" I protested.  

"C'mon.  Trust me."  Giggling as she spoke, "It is going to work just fine.  You are going to like it."  Helen drew a coin from her pocket.  "Are you ready?"  She wavered the shiny coin in front of me with a big grin.

Argh!  When I am in such a plight, the best advice that my friend has for me is a coin toss?  That suspiciously big smile on her face is really not instilling much faith in me.  

The coin went up, and the coin came down.  Helen caught it swiftly and covered it up with the other hand.

I poked my head forward to look, but Helen would not uncover her hand.  

"So, what is it?" I asked.

"I don't know.  Hehehe . . . "  Helen let out her signature laugh.  

I think she was having fun tormenting me.  

"Before I open my hands, tell me honestly: deep inside, do you have the desire for it to be one more than the other?  What do you want to see?  Head or Tail?"  The smile suddenly went away from her face.  I realized for the first time that Helen can be quite intimidating when she is serious.  

"Um, actually, I hope to see a head on the coin." I confessed.  "So, what do you have there?  Open up!"  

A naughty smile returned to Helen's face.  "You already know what you want.  Why do you need the coin anymore?"  She slipped the coin back into her pocket without ever looking at it.

The lesson has stuck with me all these years.

After I pulled out the invisible coin the other day to help my friend solve his problem, I found myself needing the coin with a situation, too.  Once again, it took care of business in no time.

Despite our best efforts to analyze our circumstances rationally and logically, at times, we still have a hard time arriving at a clean, comfortable solution.  Muddled emotions, fears that we are unwilling to confront, hidden truths that we are reluctant to face . . .   They entangle together and leave us in a bind.  The so-called "head over heart" people tend to have it worse because they think they can think their way out of everything.  Fortunately, the miraculous invisible coin is always there to the rescue.  Without even being flipped, it cuts through all the crap and brings the truth to light.

The next time you find it hard to make up your mind, you know what to do.