Occam’s jacket

With three children in the house, various belongings are often left where they don’t belong. For two weeks or so, I’ve noticed someone’s jacket by the back door, draped over a Wiffle ball bat. I’ve wondered: Which of my children has a blue jacket that looks like mine?

Last night, I noticed the jacket again and had a moment of realization. And indeed, the jacket was my own. (I still have no recollection of having left it there, though I’m sure I did.)

We can be quick to find others as the source of a problem — and a bit slower to identify the roles that we ourselves play. It’s easy to tag a problem as foreign when we don’t recognize our own participation.