You’re Hired!
Rude Awakening
“I can believe anything, provided it’s incredible.”
~ Oscar Wilde
For the first 32 years of my life, doubt was rarely my initial or even secondary reaction to the incredible, and neither maturity nor experience did much to heighten my suspicion of the absurd.
Having fully accepted that a virgin could give birth, that bubble gum takes seven years to digest and that someday my prince would come, it’s no surprise that if I had been a hiring manager, I’d probably have sent an offer letter to Jeffrey Dahmer.
I rarely doubted or demanded proof of what others told me. And on the rare occasion I did, Sister Mary Rose of the Most Holy Cross would lift her dusty head from the grave and gasp, “If you doubt it, just don’t think about it.”
I always took everyone at their word, thinking, “Why would they lie?” Eventually, I realized my fatal flaw was not that I asked the question, but that I never attempted to answer it.
Wise Ask: “Why would they lie?”
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CATEGORY DEFINITIONS:
Re-Recollection: A brief, occasionally edited recounting of an event or situation.
Rude Awakening: A short piece of writing describing a sudden awareness or discovery that causes a change in perception.
Rabid Rant: A brief diatribe on a single topic, often characterized by strong and passionate language.
Why would they lie? Oh, that’s easy—because why wouldn’t they? It props up whatever personal bias, agenda, or half-baked opinion they’ve decided is equivalent to truth today. Facts? Cute idea. But feelings dressed up as expertise are so much more fashionable.
Some authority figure tells you to fall in line, and the expectation is simple: obey first, think… well, preferably never. After all, most people were never taught how to ask real questions, evaluate evidence, notice manipulation, or even suspect bias. It’s so much more convenient to just nod along like a well-trained bobblehead rather than risk the wild, rebellious act of asking, “Wait—does any of this make sense?”
Because disagreeing comes with hazards: someone might judge you, you might spark conflict, or—heaven forbid—you might no longer be invited to the group text. And yet, we’re supposed to be comforted by the idea that the last decade’s worth of college grads were trained in “critical thinking.” Sure. Let’s just hope someone actually thought to teach them what the word critical means.
Smart girl — but I always knew that!