Not Understanding WAS: Too much to swallow

[Guest guest]

maurice wrote: " 2. The person tells you to " keep it simple " . But the

level of simplicity they demand wipes out half the content of what you

want to say. No no, that's too deep for me, I don't understand, so I

don't have to respond to it. Why don't you just say ...? they pick out

something. "

responded: " I have seen very intelligent people " play dumb "

when they don't agree with something I have said. I have argued with

people who subscribe to the Journal of the American Medical Association

and the Wall Street Journal and seen them suddenly become incapable of

understanding text that was written on a sixth grade level when it was

laid before them. "

I am going to tell a story about my father and the executive director

of the retirement residence where he lived until his passing in 2005.

My father was a world renown, respected scientist in the field of

zoology ... entymology to be exact. He was exceedingly young when he

earned his Ph.D. and over the course of his career, won many

prestigious awards. He was a well-spoken man with a vocabulary that

was breathtakingly immense. And not only was he fluent in English but

also in a French, Spanish and German. Right up until the night before

his death, he was as sharp as ever, having never lost any of his

intellectual capabilities.

My point in snapshotting some of his 'intellectual' brilliance serves

to underscore the next part of my story.

My father abhorred any cabbage-related foods. Yes, if it was cabbage,

kale, broccoli, collards, Brussels sprouts,kohlrabi, bok choy,

cauliflower et al, it would not pass his lips much less make it into

his body.

This being said, a retirement residence strives to provide their

residents not only with food choices across their meals but also a

balanced diet. This means that sometimes cabbage, kale, broccoli,

collards, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, bok choy, cauliflower or some

other member of the Cruciferae family will find itself on the menu.

My father would argue that it was obvious that the executive director,

who he knew lived in a modest home in town with her husband and two

young teenagers, had a secret cabbage farm. She obviously was making a

killing by collecting not only her wage as executive director of the

retirement residence where he lived but -- according to his very vocal

public rants on the subject -- a second, more robust income from the

sale of cabbage-related vegetables to no less than four retirement

residences in town.

Nothing else he ever discussed held a candle to the complete lack of

logic in his 'Cabbage Conflict' assertion. And no amount of

explanation from the dietician on staff or the executive director or

anyone else in the know made him waver in his claim that the executive

director was selling her Cruciferae crop to the retirement residences

in question.

It got to a point where it was far more comical than upsetting to hear

him fire up on the subject and at the same time, it drove home the

point that he did not want to listen to reason. He wanted to be right

and if being right meant that he had to purposely be thick as a door

post, then so be it.

Now that I have related this story, I can say that oftentimes I see

other people in life act and react similarly. If they hear something

they do not wish to hear, they will argue against logic that things are

not so OR they will play stupid when proof is provided to them that

they are mistaken in their belief.

Raven