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[Rodney]

Life is like a box of chocolates....

… going on to add, “you never know what you’re going to get next”.

But is that really true? Of course life itself is an unknown, that goes without saying. None of us has a crystal ball telling us what to expect next, when to move our head to the left to avoid that golf ball that some careless swing has sent flying our way out of our field of view. But to compare it to a box of chocolates? Is that really the case?

If you are not paying attention to the box of chocolates and idly dip your hand in, picking one at random and placing it in your mouth without looking at it, then yes, you never know what you are going to get next. However, how many of us actually do that? Shouldn’t the quote actually be modified to state that “life’s like a box of chocolates… everyone else takes what they want first and leave you with the Orange Cream?” (obviously replace Orange Cream with your least favourite filling or it loses its impetus).

But therein lies my point. As a general rule we don’t randomly pick a chocolate and eat it without looking at it or making a cognitive selection. There is no element of surprise. Not least because there is either a card in the box which tells us which chocolate contains what filling or, if we are that much of a connoisseur, because we recognise the shape or pattern as being a Caramel Barrel, or Hazelnut Surprise. The more you eat chocolates, the more familiar those shapes and textures become, until eventually you can reach into the box without looking and, purely by touch alone, locate your favourite, pluck it from its plastic bed and pop it into your already salivating mouth without any element of clairvoyancy being required