Day 187: It is Foodsday of Halfway Week, and since I spent Wednesday eating whatever delectable Independence Day thing I wanted, this Foodsday should focus on Food for Thought. Have you ever started following a recipe, and halfway through, you decide it's not really what you want to cook, after all? It doesn't sound good, or you're missing an ingredient, or you saw that brick of aged white cheddar in the fridge and decided what you REALLY wanted to make was mac and cheese? I have done that. In that moment, I would say that I have lost the plot.
It is a common phrase . . . I've/She's/He's lost the plot. It is said synonymously with "went off the rails" or "fallen out of touch" or "lost their way." The Oxford Dictionary defines the phrase as meaning “to lose one's ability to understand or cope with events."
For someone who writes, the term is LITERAL. (That was a joke for my writing friends.) There are times when you're feverishly writing, and suddenly you realize you've veered off course . . . you have lost the plot of your story, and now you're just zigzagging, willy nilly, toward an unknown conclusion.
One of my characters says "If you're not in the grave, then it's not too late." I tend to agree with his way of thinking. That may sound a bit self-serving, since his way of thinking sprouted from my way of thinking, but I'll quote him, anyway. His point? As long as you're still living, you can make a change.
The good thing about being HALFWAY is that the term, itself, suggests there is an equal half ahead of you. So what, if you've lost the plot? You still have time to find it. You still have time to lock onto the rails and find your marbles and get back in touch. And if mac and cheese is what you really want to cook, then Master Chef that brick of aged cheddar into something spectacular. Just because we sometimes find we've lost the plot, doesn't mean we can't find it again. We're only halfway, after all.
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