For years, whenever I had something big that needed to go into the trash can upstairs in my kitchen, I would instead walk it right down to the garbage can outside because I didn’t want to fill up the trash can too quickly. If I did, I reasoned, that would mean extra trips to the garbage can to empty it. Except, of course, it occurred to me today that I make so many more extra trips bringing the big things down to the garbage can that I was probably doing more than if I just dumped it in the upstairs trash can in the first place. All of which is to say that it is not easy to be an obsessive compulsive, especially when you so understand why what you are doing is crazy but you keep on doing it.