The group was stuck again

We were all standing around the whiteboard. The marker was hovering. We’d been talking in circles for twenty minutes. It was just about where to order lunch.

That familiar feeling of being stuck

Someone would suggest a place. Then someone else would have a reason against it. Too far, too greasy, someone’s on a diet. The options kept piling up. The decision felt heavier than it should.My brain was starting to ache. I could see the same look on a few other faces. We were overcomplicating a simple thing. The goal had shifted from getting food to finding the perfect choice.

Letting the coin decide

I fished a quarter out of my pocket. I didn’t even ask. I just held it up. “Heads for the pizza place, tails for the sandwich shop.” There was a brief silence. Then a few nods.I flipped it. It spun in the air, a little flash of silver. We all watched it. For that second, the debate was over. There was nothing to argue. The outcome was out of our hands.It clattered on the table. Tails. Sandwiches. A couple of people actually sighed. But it was a sigh of relief, not disappointment. The tension just evaporated.

The laugh that followed

We all started laughing. It wasn’t a huge laugh. More of a quiet, shared chuckle. We’d just spent half an hour in a mental knot. A coin solved it in three seconds.The fairness of it was what mattered. No one’s preference was weighted more. No one had to defend their choice. The coin was the perfect, impartial referee. We could all accept its verdict without any hard feelings.We walked out to get sandwiches. The conversation was easy again. We weren’t talking about the decision anymore. We were just talking.