How do you get good judgement?
Sep 20, 2016Ahh, sorry!! I didn’t mean to leaving you hanging yesterday .. I forgot to come back to the gun after the story took a different turn.
The good news is I made it .. phew!!
So anyway, there I was having this very odd experience, observing this body, that was looking down at this gun shoved in its chest.
The guy turned me around and with the gun in my back marched me off away from the other people on the beach. As we went behind some rocks, what little light there was disappeared. I felt sure this was gonna be the end.
After about 20 yards, he pushed me towards some stone steps that led back up to the road. I nervously climbed the first few and then turned slightly to the left and took half a peek back over my shoulder at my abductor.
The light from one of the street lights up on the road was now just reaching us and his sinister, shadowy form was transforming into .. a sort of uniform.
I stopped and spun round to look at him face to face and to my absolute delight, I realised he was a policeman! The gratitude I felt at that moment was overwhelming and it washed over me in a millisecond.
‘It’s ok, he’s a policeman!’ I shouted up the steps.
Up by the road my friends had been caught by the policeman’s partner.
‘It’s ok, he’s a policeman!’ I said again, ‘we’re not gonna die, it’s going to be ok!’
I was beaming with pure joy, but my friends were looking at me like I was mad.
The two policemen then proceeded to cross-examine us at the road side for the next 5 minutes in Spanish, which none of us spoke. Eventually they asked for our passports, which we didn’t have with us.
‘OK!’ said one of the policemen, and he shooed us away with his hands. We were free to go.
I think they thought we had guns, hence the totally over the top response. But when they realised it was just fireworks, they lost interest.
When I told my Mum and Dad some months later, they were absolutely horrified. And as a parent of four children, I can totally understand that! But at the time, I thought they were over-reacting.
When I think of some of the things I routinely did when I was little, just the thought of my children doing something like that literally terrifies me.
I remember at the age of 8 or 9, waking up early one morning and trying to amuse myself until everyone woke up. I picked up an electric bedside lamp and took the bulb out. I peered into the empty socket of the lamp and saw these two little pins in there. I wonder what they do, I thought to myself.
So I touched them and then, very slowly, pushed them down. I was surprised how easily they moved for the first second .. and then .. I got the SHOCK of my life!
I danced across the room like Rumpelstiltskin!!
How do I protect my children from that kind of danger?
On the one hand I want to save them all of the pain that comes from needless experiences like that. But then again, how else do you learn?
How do you get good judgement?
It’s from bad decisions isn’t it?
So if I want my children to have good judgement, I’ve got to let them make their own mistakes and have their own experiences.
Need to work out though, how to safe guard them from colossal stupidity .. like mine! Let's hope it's not genetic :)
The good news is I made it .. phew!!
So anyway, there I was having this very odd experience, observing this body, that was looking down at this gun shoved in its chest.
The guy turned me around and with the gun in my back marched me off away from the other people on the beach. As we went behind some rocks, what little light there was disappeared. I felt sure this was gonna be the end.
After about 20 yards, he pushed me towards some stone steps that led back up to the road. I nervously climbed the first few and then turned slightly to the left and took half a peek back over my shoulder at my abductor.
The light from one of the street lights up on the road was now just reaching us and his sinister, shadowy form was transforming into .. a sort of uniform.
I stopped and spun round to look at him face to face and to my absolute delight, I realised he was a policeman! The gratitude I felt at that moment was overwhelming and it washed over me in a millisecond.
‘It’s ok, he’s a policeman!’ I shouted up the steps.
Up by the road my friends had been caught by the policeman’s partner.
‘It’s ok, he’s a policeman!’ I said again, ‘we’re not gonna die, it’s going to be ok!’
I was beaming with pure joy, but my friends were looking at me like I was mad.
The two policemen then proceeded to cross-examine us at the road side for the next 5 minutes in Spanish, which none of us spoke. Eventually they asked for our passports, which we didn’t have with us.
‘OK!’ said one of the policemen, and he shooed us away with his hands. We were free to go.
I think they thought we had guns, hence the totally over the top response. But when they realised it was just fireworks, they lost interest.
When I told my Mum and Dad some months later, they were absolutely horrified. And as a parent of four children, I can totally understand that! But at the time, I thought they were over-reacting.
When I think of some of the things I routinely did when I was little, just the thought of my children doing something like that literally terrifies me.
I remember at the age of 8 or 9, waking up early one morning and trying to amuse myself until everyone woke up. I picked up an electric bedside lamp and took the bulb out. I peered into the empty socket of the lamp and saw these two little pins in there. I wonder what they do, I thought to myself.
So I touched them and then, very slowly, pushed them down. I was surprised how easily they moved for the first second .. and then .. I got the SHOCK of my life!
I danced across the room like Rumpelstiltskin!!
How do I protect my children from that kind of danger?
On the one hand I want to save them all of the pain that comes from needless experiences like that. But then again, how else do you learn?
How do you get good judgement?
It’s from bad decisions isn’t it?
So if I want my children to have good judgement, I’ve got to let them make their own mistakes and have their own experiences.
Need to work out though, how to safe guard them from colossal stupidity .. like mine! Let's hope it's not genetic :)
Until next time ..
Don't miss my new Speaking360º weekly newsletter!
Communicating is not just about words. We need to think about our body language, tone, and pacing. How we feel impacts the way we speak. Struggling to find the right content makes us ineffective. Great speakers know that becoming an exceptional speaker isn't just an art - it's a process with many essential elements.
Every Sunday evening Roddy sends out his Speaking360º newsletter, an action packed and inspirational article filled with tip + tricks you can start to use right away!
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
Author + Owner of SpeakerPro.com
