"Don't run with the cheese"

It's weird the things you hear yourself say when a toddler is around, especially when you find yourself repeating phrases. This Christmas celebration heard a chorus of "don't run with the cheese", as a precious 3 1/2 year old would run triumphantly from the kitchen with her slice of american cheese aloft, only to have a playful pup chase after her. Maybe perhaps without a dog around, running with the cheese would be okay, but encouraging the dog to start a chasing game with taunting food involved seemed unwise.

With repetition, "don't run with the cheese', starts to offer a mantra-like sound, hinting at a hidden meaning, a grand metaphor for life. I've been turning the phrase over for days, trying to hear what the cheese has to tell me.

I have long known the depressing truth that it is often easier to get through life if you appear mediocre. Examples are endless of how not standing out requires you not to stand out, but a simple A and B comparison was evident in my first job out of college. I was a legal assistant sitting next to another legal assistant. She was incompetent, I was competent. Attorneys brought me work, and the increasingly challenging work, to protect themselves from the mess she made of things. We made the same salary and when I argued for a raise, it was given to her as well, since in theory we were doing the same job. At the end of the day I was doing more work and working harder than her for the same amount of money because: she was mediocre.

Of course there is much to be said for the long-term results of this example. I left for graduate school after a year so was not able to benefit from the reputation I believe I had built that would have led to progress in the company while she sat in the same cubicle with her radio on just loud enough to annoy me. While perhaps in the short-term, mediocrity is safer and easier, in the long-term I have to admit that it is no way to achieve your goals.

Which brings me back to the cheese. I think the reason the phrase has been loitering in my thoughts is because it's wrong. You should run with the cheese. You should hold it high and flaunt it and say "Look at me! I'm a badass with some cheese!" and face the threatening chasers head on. Of course, for a toddler, still, don't run with the cheese, but for me, I think it's time.