In these difficult and fractured times in which we live, there is often a movement around what is called the Third Way.
You may be familiar with the Third Way concept. It's the process or plan some folks would have us follow when the majority of folks are on either side of an issue.
The Third Way is that calm voice of reason that acknowledges both the other two sides have good points but that we all have to be willing to compromise and find common ground in order to make progress. In a political sense, it's sort of like what would happen if your mother ran things. Plus there'd likely be more cookies involved, but you'd have to hug a lot more.
The Third Way is sort of like those surveys that, once upon a time, asked "Do you prefer Candidate A, Candidate B or another candidate?" Except the pollsters found "another candidate" always won because Candidate A and Candidate B were known quantities. Likely, also, either idiots or criminals, or both. However, "another candidate" was a combination of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa without the odd accent, beard or wooden teeth. Not necessarily in that particular order.
In a non-political sense, the Third Way is what someone – usually someone annoying who no one really likes because they're always calm and probably smoke a pipe – wants everyone to do when the other two choices are real extremes and there doesn't appear to be any common ground.
The reality is the Third Way suggestion usually results in the two warring factors uniting, typically in their dislike of the Third Way guy. But hey, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or something like that. Anyway, it's progress.
Now, I was thinking of the Third Way in a fairly odd context the other day. Which is not unusual, since most of my life is a fairly odd context. Or at least that's what I'm repeatedly told. I don't know. Makes perfect sense to me. But ... I digress.
Anyway, I started thinking about Third Ways right after my yearly physical. Told you it was an odd context.
I've been doing these physicals for some time now, and as a man of a Certain Age, that allows me to track the actual results (relatively fine so far: something bad could happen, but if it does it'll still be a surprise instead of an inevitability) and track the language used to break the news, so to speak.
On the one hand, there is "You're in incredible shape. You're a Greek god. I'm thinking of bringing in all the nurses and many of my other patients to marvel at you and to provide inspiration for them on their own journey." That, of course, has never actually been either said or even implied to me, but it's definitely at one end of the spectrum.
On the other hand is "Hmmmm ... well, ah, yeah, ah, do you have anyone who can drive you home? Or better yet, how about we just get you upstairs and checked in, say, right now?" Haven't heard that, either. But at this point, it's a little more likely than the first one.
The Third Way, at least in my case, appears to be, "Well, you're in pretty good shape, all things considered."
Which is sort of vaguely reassuring, except I can consider some pretty strange things, including that I might have beriberi disease or Dengue Fever. And I don't actually know what either of those are.
Apparently, at this point in my general trajectory, "pretty good shape, all things considered" is when all the really big-ticket bad stuff has been ruled out, and anything left is just sort of a byproduct of that whole being-of-a-certain-age thing.
And even that is spun with a certain degree of positivity that I might not be feeling quite as much as I do that sharp stabbing pain in my shoulder. Which turned out to be that my glasses got hooked my shirt when I took it off and then put it back on.
For instance, Third Way thinking is "Yes, your knees sound very much like maracas being playing as part of a mariachi band. But then, who doesn't love mariachi bands?" Which, I had to admit, is true.
And, which I'll take. Lets face it, at some point, "not any worse" and "not THAT bad" is the best you can expect. Somewhere between your wildest hopes and darkest fears. The Third Way.