Don't Look If You Don't Want to Know

Midway through my son's baseball game, where I was freezing, despite it being May and my having brought a mug of hot coffee, I bought a large cookie from the concession stand (hey, it's a bargain at a dollar, and the concessions money helps fund the league). As I unwrapped the cookie, I started--it's instinct--to look at the nutritional information on the wrapper. And then I stopped myself. I had bought the cookie to perk me up in the cold. I certainly knew when I bought it that it wasn't fresh fruit or a salad. Was I really planning NOT to eat it if I saw on the package that it had a lot of fat and calories? Of course not. So I stopped myself and ate the cookie.
 
And thus, my title. If I really just wanted to eat the cookie, then why bother knowing its nutritional makeup? Just to make myself feel bad about eating it?
 
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like having information to help me make informed decisions. I actually like the calorie counts posted in restaurants and the nutritional breakdown printed on wrappers. It's just that, if I am going to make a decision without choosing to consider all the facts, I don't think it's so useful to know all those details in the first place. As I tell my children, "Don't ask me what I think if you don't want to hear what I think." Would knowing there was going to be a mid-year school bus strike have kept me from sending my kids to far-away schools? No. Would knowing about exact train fares and exactly how long traveling to work would take have kept me from accepting a viable job? No. Would knowing that a cookie probably contained my full day's worth of calories and fat have stopped me from eating it? In that moment, no. All cases in which it might be better to take the leap without all the facts. All cases in which facts might cause more angst than security.
 
I understand that this "close your eyes and jump" approach might not work for everyone. For me, it is just the simplest way to limit overloading myself with an exhausting array of information. Sometimes life requires a leap of faith, a leap not based on a close analysis of the facts. And sometimes, I'm willing to take that leap.
 
And eat that cookie.