Why you should eat only one fortune cookie:
Fortune cookie #1:
"Be patient. Good things come to those who wait."
Fortune cookie #2:
"Good things come to those who wait but only the things left by those who hustle."
Now my head hurts, though after two cookies, my stomach feels a bit better.
A few days after the NYT ran a story on fortune cookies with "downbeat advice," I got one myself. My department ordered Chinese food for lunch today (yes, I know I live well).
My fortune read:
"Solid gains are possible today, but with a headache."Another faculty member (who works in an ethics department no less) received:
"Before asking 'Am I doing things right?', ask yourself, 'Am I doing the right thing?'"My health policy professor opened his cookie to find:
"You need to control your emotions. Keep them under wraps."
Yesterday the center director brought in a plate of cookies. That's not unusual. Several times a week somebody brings in blueberries, chocolate, banana bread, or other snack for public consumption - another indication that I have a wonderful place to work.
At 5 PM, there were two cookies left on the plate.
"Whether I bring in a dozen or a million," she joked on her way out, "there’d still be two left at the end of the day."
How true.
I usually consider it silly (at best) or deceptive (at worst) when patients decline to know their diagnoses. I mean, isn't more information, more clarity, always better? Then last night, as I snarfed down a box of cookies, I realized that at least this one time, I consciously evaded the nutrition facts. I didn't want to know.
Some folks working in philosophy debate whether there's "a right not to know." I mean, say you could know the day of your death. Would you want to know it? I wouldn't. What if you could know definitively whether there was a god. I bet many people would decline, backing up their choice with some poetic bullshit about "faith." Still, if that's what they want... Everybody has his or her own box of cookies.
But how strong is this supposed "right" to remain ignorant? If you're a sexually active person, is there a right not to know your HIV status? And when it comes time to reproduce (for those who choose to), is it okay to avoid learning whether you carry the gene for Huntington's? Is there a right not to know about social ills? About global warming? About genocide in Darfur? Forrest Gump notwithstanding, is life really like a box of cookies?
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