Thinking Out Loud, Volume CDLXVIII

How many of you remember the Pepsi Challenge? Here's what it was: Pepsi ran an ad campaign where they would blindfold volunteers and give them a taste of Pepsi and a taste of Coke to see which flavor they preferred. These events were not staged...they were real. In fact, I had a friend who worked with Pepsi, and that was her job. The results? A majority of the participants chose Pepsi over Coke. The people at Coke couldn't believe it, so they went out and performed the same exact challenge. Their results were the same....people preferred Pepsi. Coca Cola then made a colossal mistake. They changed their recipe so that Coke would taste more like Pepsi. It was called New Coke. The general public rejected it like it was poison and demanded that they get their "Old Coke" back. Then an employee of Coca Cola had an idea: They would present the challenge again, but this time, instead of giving each participant just a "taste" of each, they would have them drink a whole bottle of each to see which they preferred. They discovered that when customers tried a taste of each, they liked Pepsi, but when they had an entire bottle of each, they overwhelmingly chose the original Coke. Therefore, we now have Coke Classic, and New Coke is gone. I still remember my first trip to a Thai restaurant. The first thing I tried there was coconut soup, and my first impression when I put the first spoonful in my mouth was "Yuck." I had gone as a guest of a friend, so I chose to use my manners and try to consume the whole bowl. After the second spoonful, I decided I could endure it, and I have to tell you, by the time I finished, I was shoveling it down like it was the best thing I'd ever had. By the end of that first bowI, I was a fan. Although we have now been living in West Monroe for thirty years, during the first few years of our marriage, we moved around a lot, causing us to be constantly having to make new friends. It almost became a game to us. We would begin attending a new church, and we would try to guess who would end up becoming our good friends. In almost every situation, the people who came to us first to make us feel welcome were not the ones who became our buddies. It's not that we didn't like them, but we just never became close. Why did people like a taste of Pepsi over a taste of Coke, while they preferred a bottle of Coke over a bottle of Pepsi? Why did I hate that first sip of coconut soup, only to be loving it by the time I was finished? Why didn't the first and friendliest people to welcome us at each new church become our close friends? Could it be that our initial reactions to something new are generally flawed? Are first impressions usually reliable? Apparently not. When I had to put my car in the shop in Northwest Arkansas, my rental was a brand of car I had never driven. I was loving it for the first few miles, but after driving it a couple days, I couldn't wait to get my old car back. After a couple weeks, you might discover that sweet young thing you were so enamored with on the first date is so high maintenance that you can't wait to trade her in for someone else. That new church you wanted to reject on your first visit may end up being the best thing that ever happened to you. I have a good friend who will admit he is very spontaneous on most of his decisions, but he will also admit it's a trait that has gotten him into trouble more times than he cares to mention. That first sip might taste pretty good, but we need drink the whole bottle before we sign the contract. Preston