cost-benefit analysis

A friend recommended that I read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and I just finished it this morning. It is a good read in most, but not all, parts. In some sections it was written so well that I found myself making a spectacle of myself laughing out loud. Occasionally a few lines were so on target that I wanted to grab whoever was within the area and read a paragraph out loud.

One such part involves a conversation the Major, a 68 year old widower, is having with his son Roger. The Major is attempting to explain his interest in a widow.

"Unlike you, who must do a cost-benefit analysis of every human interaction, I have no idea what I hope to accomplish. I only know that I must try to see her. That's what love is about, Roger. It's when a woman drives all lucid thought from your head; when you are unable to contrive romantic stratagems, and the usual manipulations fail you; when all your carefully laid plans have no meaning and all you can do is stand mute in her presence. You hope she takes pity on you, and drops a few words of kindness in the vacuum of your mind."

The son responds while rolling his eyes. "Pigs'll fly before we see you at a loss for words."

Pigs will fly indeed because the Major courtesy of the author, Helen Simonson, is witty and eloquent throughout the novel.

But what about the Major's comments regarding cost-benefit analysis? Are we not wise, as his son suggests, to do a cost-benefit analysis even when it comes to family and romance?

Is there any accounting for what seems to be irrational emotion? Can someone explain why after each last second victory in the NCAA tournament players jump on top of their teammates in unrestrained glee? Why does this occur? In college sports, most players gain no pecuniary advantage for a victory. Maybe the stock of someone who could play professionally will go up, but for 90 percent of the players on the court, and every single one of the players on the bench, there is no benefit to outweigh the costs of acting like a crazy person, let alone the hours of travel and the loss of time in classes where one, ostensibly, will learn somethings that can add to out of school marketability.

I am fairly certain that many fans of Connecticut, Kentucky, Butler, and VCU spent work or school time today, poring over newspaper accounts of their teams' successes over the weekend. What is the benefit? For those who purchase tickets to the game and travel/lodging to watch the games, what are the benefits?

The Major and Roger are discussing love, not March Madness, but maybe it is the same thing. For some issues, if not for most, the wisest accounting is to let your heart record what passes for assets over debits. Can any reader write honestly, that the most significant moments in life were those in which there was a payday, as opposed to a time when a sweeheart "drives all lucid thought from your head; when you are unable to contrive romantic stratagems, and the usual manipulations fail you; when all your carefully laid plans have no meaning and all you can do is stand mute in your lover's presence."

Pigs'll fly when this ceases to be the case.