Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Fifteen

When I got to work this morning after the Easter weekend holiday, I was clearing my email when I came across this interesting subject line: Do you have all your eggs in one basket? It is a question perhaps best not contemplated first thing on Monday morning of a work week.

If you enter the phrase “all your eggs in one basket” into a Google search, you will come up with various ideas of how the phrase can be applied. Several of them seem to refer to financial matters (such as portfolio diversification, for example). The phrase could also apply to business diversification designed to attract more than one type of customer. In at least one example I found, the phrase applies to academic preparation for a career.

When I was a work study student at Lincoln Memorial University in the 1980s, I worked for biology professor Dr. Louis Lutz. Dr. Lutz was definitely a colorful gentleman, and I have had opportunity to write about him in the past. As his typist, I was privy to some of the conversations he had with students and other professors. I remember once he said to a visitor to his office, “You know, I have a doctor’s degree in biology, but it’s not worth a d—n to me. It’s all I know anything about. You give me a man that knows something about a lot of things, and I’ll show you a well-rounded individual.”

I understand exactly what Dr. Lutz meant. I have a doctorate in Executive Leadership in the field of education, and I have to pay others good money to fix my car, build my house, repair my plumbing and HVAC, etc. I have former students who did not go on to higher education after high school, but they make more money than I do because they know a trade that we “educated fools” (as one of my former pastors called me) have great need of.

Then there is the thought surrounding having “all your eggs in one basket” when it comes to romance and commitment. A lot of money is made by those who write self-help books on such subjects. There are those who think it is fine to date several people at one time, while others will not consider dating more than one person at the same time. There are those that believe in what used to be termed “alternative lifestyles” that might involve being intimately involved with more than one person, even during and after marriage. One blog I read on Google advises that sometimes people find the one person who seems to have been created just for them, but that they need to have a backup plan in mind in case the relationship “goes south”.

I could elaborate upon the idea of having eggs in a basket by asking: Are you a basket case? A Google search of this phrase will pretty much tell you what you already know—the term is used to somehow denote someone who is very nervous or mentally unstable due to unfortunate life circumstances or extreme worry. Most of us encounter people we consider to be “basket cases”. Other terms for people who might be considered basket cases include those who are said to be a “brick shy of a load”, “a sandwich short of a picnic”, “short a knitting needle”, “a few cards shy of a full deck”, “not the sharpest pencil in the drawer”, and similar sayings.

And then there’s the question: Do you even have a basket? My Google search on this provided an idea of providing those you love with a basket of goodies to make their day. Easter is a prime time to do this, but it can also be done on other holidays or at any time you want to show someone you care. Items can be anything from religious for your pastor to romantic for your significant other or books for a voracious reader. Sadly, many people go through life and never receive or give a basket, either figuratively or literally.

This week, strive to be a “good egg”. Keep your basket full of good things, and share with others whose baskets may not be as full as yours. Remember, it only takes one rotten egg to spoil the basket!