I do not consider myself a “people person.” I never know what to say to motivate them, or get them to listen, or get them to consider an alternate point of view, or console them when they grieve.
Sometimes this genuinely bothers me. Other times, my antipathy and indifference makes me wonder if my heart has stopped beating and I’ve somehow died without realizing it.
But I keep finding myself in these Bizarro-world situations where I seem to be the only one who can see the dysfunctional dynamics, like the torn lining of a coat getting jammed up in the underside of zipper’s slider, and it’s so infuriatingly obvious that if people would just stop and get out of their own heads for a brief second . . . they’d have no choice but to see it too.
Instead, they keep (metaphorically speaking) yanking that damn zipper back and forth, harder and more viciously, as if that’s somehow going to fix things. All it does, of course, is tear the coat lining even more, so more gets caught in the slider.
Stop Yanking The Zipper.
Figure out what’s happening.
Then, and only then, should you act.