Nestled all
snug in my bed, visions of sugar plums dance in my head, and thanks to Professor
Sidney Morgenbesser, in madcap and gustatory fashion, so too, does
this sweet Independence of Irrelevant
Alternatives axiom dance in my head:
After finishing dinner at her
favorite downtown eatery, Sadie decides to order a slice of pie. The server
tells her she has two choices, apple or blueberry. Sadie orders the blueberry. After a few minutes the server returns with
the added information that cherry pie now, too, is available. “Hmmm
… I’ll have the apple pie then, a la mode,” says Sadie.
Despite
Sadie first having ordered blueberry when there were only two choices of pie,
the option of having a slice of blueberry pie when the cherry pie became
available, was brought forth, as a supposedly irrelevant alternative, caused
Sadie to switch her decision. Sadie’s decision making fails to adhere to
the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) axiom.
WTF!
With
behavior in Psychology as a response to
external and internal stimuli and/or the
action by which an organism adjusts to its environment, why would Sadie
behave in such a manner?
All behavior is purposeful, according to American psychiatrist,
William Glasser.
And oftentimes behavior
is the veneer for angst and insecurity, according to Canadian economist, Travers Child.
In the case of Sadie and the apple pie, I do
believe it is Sadie’s angst which causes her to behave in a seemingly
irrelevant alternative action.
Déjà vu will
help explain. You know déjà vu, that
feeling of familiarity, that crazy sense of recollection. Perhaps Sadie is unconsciously recalling an
experience.
Let us
imagine that Sadie (I’m making this up) is from the rural west part of the
country. Let us imagine that Sadie grew
up in rodeo and orchard county heartland, a place abound with cowboys and fruit
pies.
Let us
imagine that Sadie had one time witnessed some cowboys at a pie-eating contest
at the Berry-Cherry Pie Festival somewhere
in her past, when she was around 13 years old.
After attending the Berry-Cherry pie-eating contest she and her friend,
Claire went over to visit Sadie’s Aunt Gladys.
Let us imagine that her Aunt Gladys had just baked a couple blueberry
and cherry pies, and those pies were cooling on the window sill when Sadie and
Claire arrived.
“You girls
need some pie,” insisted Aunt Gladys as she set two pies, one blueberry and
cherry, on the kitchen table right in front of both girls. And then began the pie-eating contest
between Sadie and Claire, and ending only with the over-stuffed pie-eating
Sadie vomiting right onto the kitchen table.
(I apologize to those gluttonous pie-eating cowboys who ride the rodeo in the Western heartland.)
Hmmm … Could
it be that Sadie wants to subdue her memory togetherness of blueberry and
cherry pie, and even removing this particular memory more so by adding a scoop
of ice cream to her slice of apple pie order.
Meanwhile
back at the ranch … and not dancing in esoteric fashion as the above mentioned
sugarplum solution, are those marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE:
Alfred is
from the Norman Wells in the Canadian North West Territories; Jared is from
Regina, Saskatchewan. Alfred and Jared
are both students at the Regina downtown Adult Campus and both are guitar-slingers ...
 |
| ALFRED AND JARED |
Jared and I
were asked to strum some tunes at the Adult Campus Christmas dinner ...
 |
| JARED AND SELF |
Some CHILD FAMILY photos ...
The poster
boy for wall climbing in Amsterdam …
 |
| TRAVERS |
My
favorite drummer, our last busk together before the snow …
 |
| BARON |
Just before the holidays ...
 |
| NATIKA AND EDEN |
And to wrap … a loving thank-you to my wife … and always our CHRISTMAS GLUE …
 |
| OUR GRANDDAUGHTER, EDEN WITH CAROL ... MY CHRISTMAS GLUE |
