What’s it Going to Take?

Change..

You know, change is an interesting word, and it can be used in connection with so many different things. There’s a change in time, a change of day, a change of clothes, a change of age, and so on.

But what about events and patterns of behavior? A woman who smokes cigarettes goes to her local convenience store every other day to buy a new pack. The person behind to counter hassles her.

The woman asks specifically for this brand in that color box, but the man behind the counter points to every brand and every box except the one she asks for. It was funny at first, and she entertained it for a year, but after a while, she had enough.

She decided to go to another store, and strangely enough, the same thing started happening again. The man behind the counter would play stupid and pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about-but he knew.

This went on for 15 years in every store she went in, until..

she decided to reach over the counter and punch the guy in the face.

The next day was like she was in a different world. She walked into her convenience store and asked for this brand in that box, and the person behind the register hopped to it with urgency. He miraculously grabbed the exact pack she asked for.

She picked it up and examined it for a while, but she didn’t buy it. She tossed it back down on the counter.

“You know what, I’m quitting today,” she said.

How do we explain that behavior?

One person goes to several different stores that are unconnected and have different people working in them who don’t know one another, but for 15 years, it was like they were all in on the same joke. From the woman’s perspective, it seemed like they all got together and decided to play a mean joke on her. She knew that wasn’t the truth, but that’s how it seemed.

There’s no explanation for what she experienced. She was suffering in her own hell and no one believed her when she talked about what was happening.

She did the right thing. Sometimes, an unexplainable problem can be solved with an unexplainable solution.