My wife J has a long history of cracking out dissatisfying fortunes out of fortune cookies. They are never completely bad, but inevitably not as fun as mine. Yesterday was a case in point. Out with friends at Iron Wok near Jordan Creek, where the chef is a master of the wok -cooking fresh ingredients at lead-melting speeds to sear in taste without losing texture or flavor, the meal ended with the passing of the fortune cookies. I made a gesture at first handing J a cookie, but the look in her eye told me that it would be more entertaining if she picked the fortune. The results, typical, are preserved in the picture above. 

For some reason, J would get these runs of bizarrely written fortunes like, “Hard work is its own reward” and “Reward without suffering is no reward.” This is made worse by my skill in garnishing fortunes like, “Success must be rewarded with pleasure” and “You deserve a Porsche 911 Turbo in Ticket Me Please Red.” 

I made up that last one. Statistics will inform me that odds are 50-50 that J get the totalitarian propoganda while I get the license to boogie in our fortune cookies, but tell that to J. This is where bias is a central feature in the way we view the world. Even when I get the fortune that says, “Trust in Effort, Be Wary of Easy Path” and she gets the one that says, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” J would say that I got hers and she got mine. I am Snoopy to her Charlie Brown. I fight the Red Baron, and she is my owner. 

That being said, with her by my side, with her sympathetic outlook on my shenanigans, with her hardworking nature, and strenuous efforts, I have been and will always be the luckiest guy around.