Eggs. Thousands of them. I need to be the fastest. I need to scramble six thousand eggs in an hour. That’s one thousand per minute. Not enough time to chew. Not enough time to enjoy. Not enough time to think. Not enough time to do anything other than go faster. My mission for the day, scan through five thousand eggs, and collect thirty tips for winning. It’s not as if the job is not tough. Don’t just take my word for it. Go ahead and try it for yourself. Two simple rules: The timing chip I use to measure my speed, and egg number zero. I place the chip in a small pouch strapped to my calf. I attach the two ends of the chip to a second pouch. I double it up, fold it over, and attach the flap to my wrist. I write my initials with a permanent marker. This is not my speed suit, this is not my time chip, this is just an extra tag. It’s unlikely you’ll find any of the eggs in my speed suit. I’ve never even used it. No point. Not enough time. I don’t win every time. Not a surprise. Some time ago, I stood, staring at the two bottoms of a ladder with no bottom. The ladder looked like a human face. In the middle was a circular opening. Like the mouth of the mouth of the whole world. Inside the opening were a thousand eggshells. The question was: which hole would hold my speed that day? I stood there, debating, then doing my best not to turn away, but the world filled in the empty space. Our thought lives a way we don’t understand. Nothing we know is simple. So here’s a thought I know a little about, and it’s this: Some of the things I can’t control, others I can. Hey, life is full of trade-offs. Trade-offs, if you want to get specific. We live on a planet, and in a universe. There are some things that can be lived without, but things we can’t live without. Most of the things we make idols of. A beach is one. Here’s a guess. Life isn’t about beaches. But you can die on a beach, can’t you?