All the phrases she could think of to do with dilemmas seemed spiky and harsh: between a rock and a hard place; the horns of a dilemma; in a cleft stick, no avoiding the discomfort.
Louisa had systematically cracked all her finger joints (again) and had returned to pacing the length of her small room whilst twisting bits hair round her right index finger when the doorbell rang. It was, she knew, Julia. She knew, because she had summoned Julia to help with the insoluble decision-making process. It is possible that Louisa had dramatized, maybe even over-dramatized her predicament, of this she was also aware.
After a restorative hug the two settled to their task
‘I’m so glad you could come round so quickly,’ Louisa managed to get out between sniffles.
‘Well of course I came, you’re my oldest friend,’ soothed Julia, at least she hoped it was soothing.
‘Oldest?’.
‘Look, we’re the same age. OK, my longest serving friend. Get us a couple of glasses, I’ve brought Prosecco and Pringles to help us get through this. Oh, and I promised to meet Charlie at 9 so we need to get this wrapped up before half eight’.
Prosecco was drunk and Pringles were munched as the skeleton of the dilemma and its potential for resolution were laid out for consideration.
Julia attempted, to no avail it must be noted, to de-escalate the problem:
‘It’s a matter of the road not taken. There will be regrets and doubts but at least you will have made a firm decision for one path. And it will be the path that seems to be the least painful’
Louisa seemed a bit disappointed with this low-key formulation. It lacked bite in her view and undervalued the magnitude of the problem. Julia sensed the need for gravitas:
‘We may have to confront the idea that there is no right way through this, just the least worst way. Remember that book we had to read when we were first years? About Odysseus and a terrible journey home from the Trojan wars?’
‘Vaguely. Was it that little blue book?’
‘Yeah I think it was. Anyway, he had a few ships, and things kept happening to them and he lost most of them. One of the things he had to face was passing between two horrors of sea creatures, Scylla and Charybdis. One was a monster with lots of heads and the other was a whirlpool that could suck ships down under the sea. Bit of a no-win situation. But he had to just go for it.’
‘So what did he do?’
‘Well I can’t remember the details. A lot of the crew were eaten or drowned but Odysseus made it back to Ithaca. Oh no, is that the time? S , this is what you have to keep asking yourself: “What would Odysseus do?”’
It was a good exit line. But was Odysseus’s judgement to be relied on in a crisis? Who knows?
