Looking at things another way

These are freeze-dried Skittles. The flavor was 100% recognizable, but the texture was eye-poppingly different. I mean, we’re talking all the moisture gone. Which leaves these puffy confections extremely crunchy. Like cereal. Not what you expect from a Skittle. And, if I’m being honest, not how I prefer them. In this case, the original is better. Still, I appreciated experiencing something familiar that had been completely flipped on its head.

I always wax pensive about things being flipped on their heads come March Madness time, and I realize as I’m saying it that there is almost nothing more ridiculous over which to wax pensive. But I do. Because the exercise of picking brackets is a rather fascinating one. It’s one of the rare times where when it comes to decisions, we’re given guidelines. Odds, if you will. And you can make all your picks based on who should win each game based on their rankings. I know people who do this. They don’t win their bracket pools. I don’t win my bracket pools either, but for an entirely different reason.

See, never once has this tournament actually seen all four #1-seeded teams ending up in the Final Four. It’s literally never happened. So if that’s what you pick, you’ll be wrong. You have to pick some upsets. Of course, there are so many potential upsets to pick, that this becomes the trick. Picking the right upsets. The odds are very low that anyone filling out a bracket will pick the right upsets, but they’re not zero. That’s my point. You’ll at least have a chance, however small, of being right. Whereas putting all your money behind the #1 seeds will never work.

It seems like an analogy for life. Or at least a good pattern to follow. Picking upsets. Changing it up. Believing in underdogs. Imagining possibilities. Giving people and ideas chances. Looking at things not in the ways they usually appear, but in different and unexpected ones. So get yourself some freeze-dried Skittles and pick some upsets. You just might be right.