Ponderings…Weighing the options

Last weekend, I saw a lot of frustrated people. The cancelation of the Watermelon Festival was a bit of a sucker-punch all around, made worse by the fact that the weather turned out to be beautiful on both Friday night and Saturday. Many people are still fuming a bit, and I think some considerations ought to be had about the decision that was made.
There were two decisions: hold the festival or cancel the festival. Of those two decisions, there could be two positive outcomes and two negative outcomes. The two positive outcomes are: One – We hold the festival and the weather is beautiful. Great! Good choice! Two – The festival is canceled and the weather is terrible. Oof! Good choice! Each of those outcomes directly fits with the decision made. We don't need to discuss these two any more, so I'll move on to the negative outcomes (and by negative, I mean where the decision doesn't line up so neatly with the outcome). Again, there are two: One – The festival is canceled and the weather is beautiful (this is what occurred last weekend), and Two – The festival is held and the weather is terrible.
It is to be noted that both of these outcomes are, indeed, negative. Ideally, the outcome and the decision would go hand-in-hand in perfect cause and effect and no one would bat an eyelash or shake an angry finger. That isn't the case with these outcomes – they just don't seem to work out quite as neatly, do they?
It's important to consider that for both of the negative outcomes, there are consequences. We directly saw the consequence of one of those: It was a beautiful day and there was no festival! All the preparation, planning and money spent by businesses, vendors and visitors alike was all for nothing. I've never seen so many people disappointed about such lovely weather.
As frustrating as it was, consider the other outcome for a moment. We hold the festival, and the weather doesn't hold up. Important to note is that just the night before, we had a powerful storm pass through Jefferson County, with intense lightning, power outages and gusts of 60 mph winds. All day Thursday, the morning started out under a tornado watch. Throughout the day, it rained so much that there were flood warnings, and there were businesses in town that had to close due to flooding. It even hailed!
Consider, if you will, if the weather didn't lighten up. After all, it wasn't supposed to. By all weather predictions Thursday, we were in for a weekend full of nasty weather that was supposed to bleed into the majority of the following week. Imagine over 100 vendors set up in their pop-up tents, dealing with pouring rain, pounding hail, flooding streets, powerful gusts of wind and explosive bursts of lightning. Not many vendors would be as eager to set up their items in such a situation. And for those who would, not many customers would be so keen to brave the storm to shop as normal. As of Thursday evening, there was not only a risk to human safety, but of countless dollars of property damage and inventory loss for vendors. As far as the two negative outcomes go, we got lucky with our clear skies and disappointment. The right call was made with the information that was available at the time. Because it could have been so much worse.
Ponder this, still. Throughout life, there are factors of every decision and scenario that you may not be privy to. Outcomes that you can never 100 percent predict. Details that were shared, but perhaps just not with you, that helped to influence the way a situation was ultimately handled. It is important, before we give ourselves away to anger and frustration, before we dish out ridicule and criticism, before we assume we could have done it better, to understand that nobody is perfect. And among all of us imperfect people, we all make judgement calls that are tough, and sometimes wrong. And that, even when we make the right call, it may still not work out the way we intended.
It is easy and okay to be disappointed, frustrated or upset. Everyone has the right to be; we all look forward to the Watermelon Festival. But be mindful of what your disappointment makes you say about real, live people who live and work in this community, and organizations that have done their best to serve our city and its people year in and year out. Consider the intentions behind decisions that were made, and remind yourself that there could be a lot more factors at play than you realize or are aware of.
Sometimes, in life, you can weigh all the data, calculate all the statistics, and crunch all the numbers, and still not be able to flawlessly predict if your decisions will be ones with positive outcomes or negative ones. Sometimes, all the wishful thinking and forward planning still won't leave you prepared, and it takes waiting for the storm to pass to see just how bad (or not) it actually ends up being. And beyond that, it takes nothing at all to forgive others of good intentions gone wrong, and simply try again next time.