My Favorite Alien

His excellent sense of fashion and his amazing blue eyes aside, Griffin the Arcanian from MIB III is the best alien character ever invented. His ability to see many possible futures at once makes him fascinating, and his realistic compassion touches the heart.  I wish I had his gift.
When we have a family crisis around here--of the imminent spilled milk, personal injury, or destroyed property kind, my husband leaps into action.  I freeze.  I want to know that I truly understand the situation before I try something that might make it worse.  Generally his swift catch saves the day, but he's learned to respect my perspective.  Between the two of us we do the best that can be done most of the time.
Taking the long view means I have lots of time to second-guess my decisions, to reconsider even if they can't be changed.  My fascination with the optimal means I reexamine failures or less than optimal outcomes frequently to determine if there is a principle to be learned or a technique to be refined.  The upside is that when I do choose a plan it is unlikely to fail.  The downside is that I seldom think my plans are good enough to act on.
My forties seem like a good time to shake that up, to do a few things I'm not sure of.  I'm ready to make mistakes.  Mistakes are many things, but they are seldom the end of the world--unless K forgets to leave a tip.