Suppose you had transported home a very expensive and delicate collection of crystal vases in your car. I suspect if you were in a rational state of mind, you would very carefully carry them into your house. You would not try to load up a dozen of them in your arms at once, and only then fumble through your pockets to locate your house keys to open the door. If you did, you could imagine that one or more of the vases would wind up shattered on the ground at your feet. You might then start to throw a fit and bellow at the door lock and your bad luck. But luck has nothing to do with it. It is stupidity, stubbornness, and laziness, pure and simple.Now the previous scenario is one that I made up to make a point. Why do we oftentimes do really stupid, short-sighted things in a moment of haste that we would never dream of doing in our right minds? In fact, how many times have you done something really boneheaded and had it go awry? It is only when you sit back later after having regained your composure that you realize that if you had seen someone else doing what you did, you would ridicule them for being an idiot. But what if they kept repeating the same idiocy over and over again?
Case in point. The other evening past sundown, as I sat on my couch reading, I could swear I heard one of my neighbors start up a lawn mower. I kind of shook my head and was curious enough to investigate. Sure enough the man who owned the property on the other side of my back fence was out mowing his lawn. He had his back porch light on, but it was a feeble source and left nearly his entire yard constricted in blackness. Two minutes later he ran over something and the mower shuddered to a halt. I then heard a string of cussing that would have made Popeye blush. You would have thought that at that moment he would have ceased his risky activity. Yet not even ten minutes later he was at it again. Bang. Same result. More cussing and fussing. Again. Bang. Same thing. More cussing and outright screaming. I thought to myself, how many times would this man continue in his idiocy? Well after the last round of yelping and carrying on came to a close, I did not hear him or his mower again that night. Whether it was because he came to his senses or he finally destroyed his mower is unclear.
