When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

When you are a wall, everything looks like a hammer and nail.

Brooke, your intriguing article reminded me of a conversation that Stan Musial (a former great baseball player for younger and international readers) had with one of his St. Louis teammates:

“Stan, do you ever have a day when you wake up and have ham and bacon for breakfast, a big lunch and prime rib at dinner? And everything goes great for the whole day?”

“Every day.”

I’m paraphrasing because I don’t recall where I read this exchange. Musial’s standard day was a desperate dream for his teammate. Similar to your two protagonists on the subway, the expectation was framed positively and negatively. Hammer and nails…