The Actual Temperature

While I was deciding what to wear today, I turned on the weather report. On the main screen, it said in giant letters: "Today's high will be 57 degrees." The monotone voice reading the words onscreen repeated the same: "Today's high will be 57 degrees."

But then the small ticker at the bottom of the screen caught my eye: "Current temperature: 66 degrees."

So. The station continues to report that the high will be only 57, even when their own equipment is simultaneously feeding the information that, in fact, it is already five degrees warmer than the projected high temp.

Hmm.

There's something off about this. New evidence is right there on the screen, and yet the powers that be are unresponsive. No, no, they seem to say - our prediction was 57, and come hell or high water (or higher temperatures), we're sticking with it.

Hmm.

I don't think this issue is limited to weathermen. [Live or automated.]

It's a problem I've had. Staring at that tiny 66, while the authoritative high projection of 57 loomed above it, my mind began cataloging times that I have made decisions, stayed in situations, took action - or didn't - based not on the 66, but on the 57. It's an important reminder: though sometimes harder to see, scrolling along the bottom of our proverbial screens, sometimes, quietly, there's been a shift. Things didn't go the way we thought they would; initial forecasts were inaccurate. Rather than continue to work with the older information, the theoretical projected high temperature which we've been planning for, expecting, clinging to -- we need to periodically look around, and see if more accurate information has become available.

It's hard, sometimes, when we were so confident that things were going to go one way, to accept that our projection was wrong. But it's usually better to make our decisions, take action, and, when we need to, get out of situations ... or get into them... not based on what our original forecast was, but based on the actual temperature.