CYA (Check Your Assumptions)

Many years ago I read a story about a young couple who just got married. The
wife wanted to cook a nice meal for her husband. She made a delicious ham
dinner. After they finished eating the husband complimented his wife on the
food. Then he asked a question. “I noticed you cut the two ends of the ham off.
Why did you do that?”

She replied, “Because my mom always did it that way, but I never asked why.
Next time I see her I’ll find out.” Later when she saw her mom she asked, “Mom
why do you cut off the two ends of the ham when you bake it?”

Her mom answered “Because your grandmother always cooked it that way. I’ll ask
her why the next time I see her.” A few days later she saw the young women’s
grandmother and posed the question. The response came quickly. “My baking pan is too short.”

The grandmother had a good reason for cutting off the two ends of the ham. Her
daughter and granddaughter assumed the reason applied to them also. They both
“imported” the assumption without asking why.

CYA is a popular acronym for “Cover your (assets).” I use it to stand for something
else, “check your assumptions.” After reading that story a question lingered in my
mind. What do I know and what am I assuming? The question wouldn’t go away. I
started noticing how often people follow in others footsteps without asking why.
They were living with imported assumptions and I was too.

Many years later I read another story in Isaac Lidsky’s book, Eyes Wide Open. On
page one he tells the following story:

“When my wife, Dorothy, was a little girl, she was fascinated by her pet goldfish.
Her father explained that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails to propel
themselves through the water. Without hesitation or doubt, Dorothy responded
by informing him that fish swim backward by wagging their heads!”
Isaac goes on to write how “Our lives are full of backwards swimming fish. We
make faulty leaps of logic. We make myriad assumptions. We prejudge. We
harbor biases. We assume. We experience our beliefs and opinions as incontrovertible truths.” Dorothy had a “home grown” assumption about the
goldfish wagging its head back and forth to swim backward.

This got me thinking again. Over the years I had been careful not to assume that
others conclusions were necessarily right for me. But how many of my own
conclusions did I assume were “fact” instead of investigating them further? What
were the backward swimming fish in my life?

Then I stumbled across a TED talk by Sarah T. Stewart about how the moon was
formed. Here is the video.

Her team was having trouble coming up with a model that explained how the
moon could be formed out of the earth. They were stuck. Then they decided to
throw out what they thought they knew. They became open to different
possibilities and found the answer.

Discovering a workable theory about the origin of the moon is a big deal. Sarah
stumbled upon something even bigger. She says, “What else am I missing in the
world around me? What is hidden from my view by my own assumptions? The
next time you look at the moon remember the things you think you know may be
the opportunity to discover something truly amazing.”

I operate by assumptions every day. It would be almost impossible not to. I don’t
have time to thoroughly investigate everything I deal with. However, I have
decided to examine my cornerstone beliefs. The more important something is to
me, the more attention it gets. I’m not going to leave it to either imported or
home grown assumptions.

I don’t like important things hidden from my view. I’ll think before cutting off the
ends of the ham. I’ll watch out for backwards swimming fish and never look at the
moon in the same way.

May you have enough today, one moment at time.