This is a true story I could be made up (but it could very well be a made up story that could be true).
A neighbour couple's son walked in on them while they were 'cooking up a storm,' or 'peeling the banana,' or 'tying down the boat.' Now perhaps they were doing literally that (I wan't there so I don't know), i.e 'cooking up a storm' for a big dinner party, or 'peeling the banana' to put in their cornflakes, or 'tying down the boat' since a storm was moving in... but you, the reader, probably jumped to a conclusion and made a fairly broad assumption about what they might actually have been occupied with.
While assumptions may not always be fair (or accurate) they ARE cheap – it costs nothing to make an assumption (unless of course it's an assumption that questions incorrectly one's own safety or mortality – which could be rather costly for an instant and then not matter at all).
Making an assumption is the most fundamental of human traits; this trait starts in our infancy when we are babies and don't know much and continues all the way through to old age when we think know too much. The only difference is that the assumptions we make over the years turn from the rosy to the rotten.
For example as babies we assume whatever we touch can be eaten (hence babies tend to put everything in their mouths with the evergreen hope that this time it'll taste nice), and by the time we are old and grey we assume that everything we touch could possibly lead to a painful death (hence old folk spit all the time and have a constant frown upon their faces, like they ate a sour lemon and can't quite get the taste out).
Naturally generalisation is a equally common human trait that falls in line with assumptions – because it is easier to assume when you are comforted with a belief system based on generalisation. In a world with increasingly bombarding stimuli and constant feedback, in our feeble attempt to cope, exceptions only prove the rule and not challenge it anymore.
In most cases stimuli or feedback that appear outside generalised parameters are discarded as anomalies and are no longer counted. There are of course areas where people surround themselves with anomalies (in fact, these people 'get it on with,' study and work out means to harness the anomalies for advancement) but those areas are ever increasingly being confined to the laboratories and realms of first world scientists and third world politicians.
To the general masses, of which I am an insignificant cog, anomalies can prove troublesome like the last jigsaw puzzle piece that fits but not quite. Thus people relegate that offending piece to force fit, bang down, smoothen off and then simply leave for done and change the subject.
Which brings me back to where I left off in the true story I made up. The little boy had intruded in on his parents to suggest that he heard strange noises which woke him up. The parents made an assumption of what those strange noises could have been, so told him it was nothing and warned him of dire consequences if he didn't hightail it back to bed and go back to sleep.
In the morning, however, they realised that their frenzied assumption was in fact incorrect and that their 'goose had been cooked' since they had been robbed.
Would I make up something like that up? They do say that truth is stranger than fiction.
[DISCLAIMER: NO animals, fruits or boats were actually harmed in the writing of this post]
While assumptions may not always be fair (or accurate) they ARE cheap – it costs nothing to make an assumption (unless of course it's an assumption that questions incorrectly one's own safety or mortality – which could be rather costly for an instant and then not matter at all).
Making an assumption is the most fundamental of human traits; this trait starts in our infancy when we are babies and don't know much and continues all the way through to old age when we think know too much. The only difference is that the assumptions we make over the years turn from the rosy to the rotten.
For example as babies we assume whatever we touch can be eaten (hence babies tend to put everything in their mouths with the evergreen hope that this time it'll taste nice), and by the time we are old and grey we assume that everything we touch could possibly lead to a painful death (hence old folk spit all the time and have a constant frown upon their faces, like they ate a sour lemon and can't quite get the taste out).
Naturally generalisation is a equally common human trait that falls in line with assumptions – because it is easier to assume when you are comforted with a belief system based on generalisation. In a world with increasingly bombarding stimuli and constant feedback, in our feeble attempt to cope, exceptions only prove the rule and not challenge it anymore.In most cases stimuli or feedback that appear outside generalised parameters are discarded as anomalies and are no longer counted. There are of course areas where people surround themselves with anomalies (in fact, these people 'get it on with,' study and work out means to harness the anomalies for advancement) but those areas are ever increasingly being confined to the laboratories and realms of first world scientists and third world politicians.
To the general masses, of which I am an insignificant cog, anomalies can prove troublesome like the last jigsaw puzzle piece that fits but not quite. Thus people relegate that offending piece to force fit, bang down, smoothen off and then simply leave for done and change the subject.
Which brings me back to where I left off in the true story I made up. The little boy had intruded in on his parents to suggest that he heard strange noises which woke him up. The parents made an assumption of what those strange noises could have been, so told him it was nothing and warned him of dire consequences if he didn't hightail it back to bed and go back to sleep.
In the morning, however, they realised that their frenzied assumption was in fact incorrect and that their 'goose had been cooked' since they had been robbed.
Would I make up something like that up? They do say that truth is stranger than fiction.
[DISCLAIMER: NO animals, fruits or boats were actually harmed in the writing of this post]
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