as children we never ever learn until we try it for ourselves. well I didn’t anyway. I was always the kid that had to touch the hot kettle even though I had been told it was hot a dozen times already. I would not believe that the fridge light went off when you closed the door until I had found the little switch by the hinge and tested it.
I didn’t believe you could get an electric shock from the scalectrix track until it happened to me.
As time has moved on you would think I would have learned to believe some things without having to test them myself. No. In fact if anything I have become more stubborn the older I get.
Okay so I’m not at the point of seeing people shot on TV dying and going out to buy a gun to test it. I am however inherintely distrustful of things I have not personally experienced.
So I think I am now at a point where I know how to judge empirical data and come to a decision.
I’ve decided that if you try giving up smoking often enough you realise you need help if you are going to really give up. So I have bought some nicotene lozenges.
No sometimes means yes
I also learnt as a kid that if you ask for something you get it. So I asked for a lot. That’s when I progressed to learning that you don’t always get what you ask for. Sometimes this was remedied by either asking for the same thing in a dfferent way or by asking for a similar thing as a compromise. I learnt as all chldren do that sometimes however if you really want something you just need to wear your folks down. Ask repeatedly but I soon discovered [when my parents got fed up of this tactic] that it doesn’t matter how many times you ask sometimes you still don’t get it. My parents seemed to think it was a bad idea to buy us everything we wanted – something to do with spoiling us or something.
So experience taught me three things that have stuck in my mind.
If you don’t ask you don’t get – moral of this one is if you want something then you had better ask for it or your elder brother will end up with it and you will only end up sulking.
If you ask and don’t get ask again – just in case they misheard the first time or they didn’t realise you were serious.
Know when to give up askng – it gets boring for both parties otherwise.
