Al's Bar and Grill
By gsnewton75

It was 5 o'clock, Friday afternoon, and right around the corner from my office was Al's Bar & Grill. A shot and cold beer sounded good I thought, so I decided to stop by. Perhaps some of the regulars would be there and want to share some of their "wisdom of the day".

Friends included Al, the bartender owner-philosopher and a big Yogi Berra fan. Then there was Dino, the Italian, who always told everybody he was from Chicago and had retired from the Mafia and Carlo, who was Dino's friend who claimed he had been his limo driver back in the day. They were a fun group, enjoyed life, were a laugh a minute, and always anxious to participate in a good old "what if" conversation.

As I entered the bar, there they were looking at me with big smiles on their faces, beers in their hands, and that look on their faces that said we're glad to see you.

Big Al greeted me first, "Hi! Mr. Norris, what'll you have?"

"A shot of Crown and a tall draft for me and give Dino and Carlo what they want on my tab."
Raising their glasses in thanks, Dino said, "What's goin on Mr. Norris?"

"Not much Dino," I said, "but I got a question for you all!"

"We thought you would Mr. Norris," said Dino with that special grin he often wore. Carlo said, "Yeah"

Al said, " Go for it Mr Norris," as he poured my shot then topped off my draft. Dino and Carlo were listening intently.

"OK guys here goes! I heard someone say in a movie one time, 'if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk.' and with that profound statement they looked at me puzzled, waiting for the question. Half way smiling I continued, "My question is, are we ever satisfied or do we always have to have more?"

Al said, "Good question Mr. Norris. Yogi says, 'when you come to a fork in the road take it.'"
"What does that mean?" asked Dino with a confused look. Carlo was scratching his head over the whole thing.

"It's like Yogi says, Dino, 'you can observe a lot by just watching.'"

"Let me try this another way," I continued. "If the mouse wants to add to his pleasure by wanting milk, do you think, when we are faced with a similar situation, that we accept what we are given or will we be like the mouse and want more?"

"That's a tough one Mr. Norris," said Dino

"It all depends," said Carlo.

"Well for example," I continued, "preachers say God and heaven require faith in order to believe in them because heaven is a promise and death is a reality. Do you think most of us would agree with them or would we want additional explanations?"

"I don't know," said Al; but Yogi says, 'you've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going you might not get there."

Dino chimed in, "that's deep!"

Then Carlo contributed, "if preachers say faith is required in order to be a reality; I say if it ain't realistic it ain't true. Truth is something that can be proven, faith can't."

"Well, Yogi said, "I tell the kids somebody's gotta win, somebody's gotta lose. Just don't fight about it. Just try to get better." Big Al offered.

Smiling and shaking my head, I continued in another direction.

"Let me ask you this, do you guys believe, evil is a simple matter of choice? "

They were hesitating so I thought I'd better interject another question before Big Al came up with another Yogism.

"Look at it this way," I said. "Can some evil be good? In other words can some good come from evil?" He did it anyway, bless his heart.

"I think like Yogi," said Big Al 'How can you think and hit at the same time?'"

"Well I can tell you this for sure," said Dino, "before I retired, when the right one got wacked, good came from evil!"

Everybody laughed and when they had regained their composure, Big Al spoke up and said, "Yogi says, 'it ain't over till it's over.'"

Everybody was now looking at me.

"What do you say, Mr. Norris?" asked Dino.

"I forgot the question guys. Give us another round Al."