The Law of One Shot

Incidents like the previous one helped me formulate what I call The Law of One Shot.

The law is simply this: you get one shot.

If you miss the first shot, or if you decide the first shot wasn't good enough, then you can get a second shot, but you're going to have to pay for it somehow.

At the very least, you will pay in the time it will take, to reconstruct the shot, to turn around and walk backward and plant your feet. But don't fool yourself. That's just the bare minimum price. Usually you will pay more than that.

For example you often pay just by disrupting the flow of whatever vibe you were in. Sometimes the flow of the day is strong and you can jump back in stream again, and regain your momentum. Sometimes it takes a while to marshal that kind of flow anew, particular if you get obsessed with some kind of perfection.

The best thing to do is keep walking. Don't turn back if you can help it. Be satisfied with what is behind you, even as you use each painful defeat to build a stronger will to keep walking.

The good side is that by obeying this law, one gets away cleanly in situations that might otherwise be horribly awkward.

Even taking a shot of the side of a Dutch work van in Amsterdam---electricians, plumbers, heating and AC service---with the work men straight overhead on the scaffolding outside, one is allowed to stop and plant one's feet, and to raise the phone for whatever purpose, and then pause momentarily, and to move on. That's the unwritten rule of flow.

No one cares if you do what I just described. They take notice of you only if you linger, and especially if you move slightly and try to get not only a second but a third shot. By then you are causing massive disruptions to the flow around you.  Voices come down at you from the scaffolding. You should have been halfway down the block by then, satisfied with what you got on the first shot.