It has to be true; everyone says so!

Last week, I walked into my doctor's office and handed her a printout I had found online about the black walnut tree. There's one right outside her door and I have learned this year that it drops very big nuts in the fall, which is why both of us didn't park under it the last time I was there.

And I said, "Hasn't it been just a beautiful fall?" To which she replied, "No! It's been terrible. My maple dropped all of its leaves at the beginning of the month. None of my trees have turned color." I was so shocked that I thought I misheard her or she misheard me. I repeated myself and she went on to say, "No, so many people have said it's been the same. Everybody says it's been a terrible fall."

This got me wondering because for me, and for many of my friends, every spectacular day has been followed by another splendid day for weeks! So, just who is everybody?

When you can't catch a cab in the city and your friend tells you an hour later that she couldn't get a cab either, and then you overhear someone else complaining about the same thing, suddenly it seems like EVERYone can't catch a cab. Or you have a cold. And your co-worker has a cold. And the cashier at the grocery store and the barista at the coffee shop both have a cold. Seems like everyone has a cold. But, this "everyone" we all talk about may only be a handful of our acquaintances. Maybe even fewer!

Then I wondered just how many people I know. If I count my family including cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and add in my friends from all the places I've ever worked or gone to school or lived, and add in all the others I've met along the way I might be able to stretch it to 500. Maybe! So if EVERY person I knew agreed on something or shared a common experience, that would be a lot. Perhaps it would be enough to really be able to say, "Everyone says so." But that "everyone" is roughly 0.0000001% of the world, which really is everyone.

Point is, when you think everyone is with you (or against you), or everything is going wrong (or right), or nothing you can do is right (or wrong)...think again. One or two or even five or ten in a row isn't "every." It only feels that way.