Misbehavior’s misdirection

A man was experiencing pain in his shoulder that was so excruciating that it was all he could think about. Everywhere he went, he would let others know about the pain in his shoulder.  He told his family. He told his neighbors. He told his coworkers. He even told the people he ran into at the store. 

One of his friends told him he could help. In desperation, he agreed to let his friend help. His friend then dropped a heavy weight on the man’s foot. While crying out in anguish about the pain in his foot, he asked his friend why he had done that. His friend responded with, “It made you forget about the pain in your shoulder.” Just because something distracts you does not mean that your issue is resolved.

How many times have you been drawn to look at one thing while something else is going on?  When a basketball player wants to get to a particular spot, they often use a series of moves, called faints. They pretend to go one way to get their opponent to move out of position. The result is a good thing for the successful player, a bad thing for the one who is not.

You see, the opponent may be able to recognize what is happening by reading (analyzing) what is happening before them and make an adjustment to prevent the player from gaining an advantage over them.  Sounds simple enough to understand, but many still don’t. 

The challenges we face today require that we prepare ourselves by analyzing (reading) the situations we see in our homes, workplaces, institutions, and governments, so that we can counter the misdirection presented to us and prevent misbehavior from prevailing.