Benny, Bing Crosby and Barber Shop Philosophy

 I had my hair cut by Benny yesterday. He works at the Exchange barber shop in San Francisco. 

It's one of the last remaining barber shops where the staff still talk about politics, philosophy and football; where the words "Paul Mitchell" or "volumizing" are never uttered, and where the average age of the barber is 67, or thereabouts.

Anyway, there I was exchanging greetings with Benny. "How are you?" I asked. "Doing fine" he replied, when he said something that brought the cordiailty of the moment to a shuddering halt (at least, it did in my mind).

"An old man told me once that if you don't expect much from life, you'll never be disappointed," Benny said.

I let the words land.

But then I couldn't resist a dissenting reply.

"You know," I said, "that's just about the total opposite of my philosophy."

"I expect an awful lot from life and then spend my time making sure that life lives up to my expectations."

"Well, you probably get a lot more disappointments that way." Benny added, politely but with the confidence of a man who had lived for three-score-years-and-ten, with a few pleasant surprises along the way.

Anyway, after that we talked about the time Bing Crosby had an apartment at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in San Mateo, near where Benny used to work. And we talked about the 1989 earthquake and the fact that people in Santa Cruz felt it about 20 seconds before people in San Mateo.

But when I woke up this morning, I couldn't get the philosophy thing out of my head, and now I feel compelled to ask you to weigh in...hence the new poll. 

So what do you reckon: "expect little...be surprised", or "aim high, and strive to fulfill"? 

Comments

[Emma]

aim high and strive to fulfill. Life's been pretty good to me so far. Look who I married :-)

[Dushka]

I weighed in on your poll, but feel compelled to add that I believe you always get exactly what you expect. When you don't expect much, you begin to shrivel.