Wednesday. Fandango’s Provocative Question once again. This week, a nice short one. He asks:
Do you believe in giving people second chances? If so, why? If not, why not?
He also quotes the old saying Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I have to say I mostly go along with the saying. If somebody lets me down with something, I know not to rely on them again.
Why? Because putting myself in the position of relying on somebody who has already proved themselves unreliable seems to me to be the height of dumb.
It doesn’t have to be a bitter or confrontational thing, it is just a case of no, thanks.
Even close to home, this has happened to me. I had an appointment at the hospital come through once. My wife said I’ll take you [because she drives and I don’t currently] then as we got closer to the appointment, she booked herself to take a singing lesson instead. So I ended up missing the appointment because I had no other way of getting there. It was just a case of forgetting she’d made the committment, but regardless of the reason, I didn’t get to my appointment.
I learned from that, that if I cannot get somewhere under my own steam, I have to just pass it up. That does indeed mean that I don’t necessarily have access to healthcare.
Months later, my wife got very upset when I declined her offer of a lift… to another hospital appointment. It turned into one of these 5-minute spats. Don’t ask me to give you a lift ever again, she said confrontationally. Wasn’t that the point? I replied.
Like I say, not bitter or anything, but you do have to chalk these things up to experience. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to be married to her any more, or anything. I still need to keep it in perspective, but isn’t that just learning?
