WHY WE DON'T LEARN TOO EASILY...AND CONTINUE TO DO DUMB THINGS.

Dear Friends:

We Baby Boomers all consider ourselves adults -- a tad immature, perhaps (part of our irrepressible charm), but rational adults nonetheless.

In theory, we should constantly be learning from our experiences, so as not to repeat the same mistakes time and time again, but we don't truly learn from our experiences if we don't believe that they are valid within our own subjective realities. Simply put, we will resist learning and changing if we remain hopeful that what we have experienced was an aberration, and not a pattern. Many times we "refuse to believe" something that we hear about someone whom we thought that we knew, or about institutions in which we have placed trust, or about fundamental hard-wired, early-learned beliefs which we hold dear because they help us to define ourselves and our world. Most importantly, they help us to define exactly where we fit in the world.

Examples abound of this very Human system of selective learning every time that we: find a new love after a heartbreak; trust someone new after we had sworn never to trust again; are disillusioned afresh after having witnessed the same behavior by someone repeatedly; we perform useless rituals because we fear what might happen to us if we were to stop.

My favorite examples of genuinely irrational behavior usually revolve around money- and love-related objects, where we are so obsessed with "having a miraculous exception occur" that we disregard all that we have experienced in the past and behave downright stupidly. The classic: Sucking up to rich or influencial people from or through whom we hope to gain something very significant...our "big break!" How about these:

May I hold the door for you, Mr. Trump, sir?

May I pick up the tab for lunch (when I don't even have cab fare home), Oprah?

May I help you conceal a large-scale unconstitutional interrogation program from Congress, Mr. Cheney?

Why Paris Hilton! How do you ever think of all of those witty comments?

O.J.! I can't believe that the police haven't continued searching for Nichole's killer!

Dr. Phil? When are you finally going to get around to writing a book on hairstyling? Your diet book nearly saved my life! Oh...by the way...can my family live in your suit for the night? We were just thrown out of our condominium.

Warren Buffett? You are amazing. I don't know how many times I've listened to "Margheritaville." (Oops.)

We also get into the habit of walking on eggshells, where we are so cloying and so accommodating that anyone within hearing distance is liable to retch. Other people watching this type of spectacle are a bit more subtle -- they merely roll their eyes and shake their heads from side to side. We are so afraid to offend them or ask anything from them that we act like Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy.

Following is a recent post for you to read and comment on:

WALKING ON EGGSHELLS We all do it. It never works. Please read my article in The National Networker at http://htxt.it/fuaW and comment. Thanks.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. A car just passed me bearing a bumper sticker which said "Expect Miracles!" Within seconds, a large bird (most likely a seagull) crapped on my windshield. Someone else would have cursed, but I knew it was a sign of great things yet to come.

p.p.s. Have you been following us on Twitter? Well, why not, Bucko? It's free, and occasionally funny. Go to http://twitter.com/SrMeetUp and be a part of our Twitter Community, too.

p.p.p.s. Am I the only one in this place who is dying for an eggcream?At this hour I'll be lucky to get a Slurpee.