DRAZEN’S LAW OF RESTITUTION

“The time it takes to rectify a situation is inversely proportional to the time it took to do the damage.” (Murphy’s Law, Book Two) For example: it takes longer to glue a vase together than to break one. It takes longer to lose ten pounds than to gain ten pounds.

It always takes more time to correct the mess than to make the mess. We all know that from experience. We also know from experience that we never seem to learn how to stop getting ourselves into even bigger messes. We know better, no doubt about it. But we don’t do better. Oh, we're more careful next time when we rush through the house. And we really watch what we eat for the next few months.

But then we seem to forget until we're all-of-a-sudden another ten pounds over­weight, or we've knocked over the lamp because we were, once again, too much in a hurry. We seem to have a knack of reminding ourselves of our frailties and failures and usually at the most inopportune moments. I mean, the reason we knocked over that vase is that we really were in a hurry to get to that really important meeting. And we really didn't notice the ten pounds until we were getting dressed for our best friend's wedding and the suit was too tight.

And then it's too late. What we do, then, is berate ourself all through that meeting we were hurrying to because of our clumsiness and thus get little out of the meeting. And we're so uncomfortable throughout the whole wedding event because, not only is the suit too tight, but we're sure everyone else notices just how tight it is on us. It's no wonder we can get inferiority complexes. Would that we could be perfect. Would that we would not just learn from our mistakes but, even better, not make any in the first place. We’re just clumsy, error-prone, mere mortals.

Because of that we’re continually putting Drazen’s Law into practice. We pay for our mistakes and we pay almost immediately, if not immediately, for them. That certainly takes the fun out of life sometimes. The wedding was going to be a ball; but how can you have a great time when you can hardly breath? We were going to strut our stuff at that meeting, but all we did was waddle through because all we could think about was that broken vase, that expensive, antique broken vase.

Well, now, if you’re waiting for an astute solution to avoiding Drazen’s Law, you’ve come to the wrong place. Let’s face it, I, for one, am always making restitution. I can’t recall a vase I broke while hurrying although I’m sure others can. But I can recall putting on and taking off pounds—for almost all my life. I should have learned the first time back in 1958 or 1959.

It’s all part of the penalty we pay for being human, for sin. It’s always easier to commit a sin than to try to undo the damage done. The remission is always more difficult than the commission. All we can do is try to learn from our mistakes and pray for the strength not to make them again. Aside from that, I don’t have any other words of wisdom: just a wish. May 2023 be less of learning and more of loving.