You learn the fire escape routes at school or work? Find the gray where you won't follow these. Well what if where you are in the building kept you from taking those fire escape routes because there was fire in the way? You are going to try and find another way out. If you do this during a fire, you are not that black and white. A black and white thinker would stay in the fire and refuse to find another way of escaping because it be the wrong way to do it.
You need to accept people for who they are, but what of that person was just a jerk? Do you still have to accept them? A black and white thinker would say yes because you need to accept everyone for who they are. I wouldn't hang out with that person at all and not have anything to do with them.
Drinking and driving. Definitely wrong. No gray in that. It's wrong period. But what if the person was at the bar drinking and then there was an emergency, they had to go to the hospital, would it still be right of them to go in their car and drive there risking their own life and others? What if no one would give them a ride and they were worried the cab wouldn't get there in time? Could this be the gray area there for when it's acceptable? Honestly if I were in this situation, I wouldn't do it at all. I drank, can't drive until the hour has gone by. I wouldn't let anyone else drive me either if they have been drinking. I wouldn't even let my cousin drive my car when she had a beer until an hour had gone by after she had last drank. She assured me she was okay but nope the law states you are not to drink and drive and it takes an hour for the effect to wear off.
What about leaving your kids in the car? I think it's okay if you have to run back in the house to get something while you have your kids out in the car. If it's real hot out, leave the car running or have the windows down or door open. What if you have to drop something in the mail box and it's just right outside your car where you parked, I would leave them as I run for it. But some people may not do this and just take their kids out of their car even if they have to walk ten feet to the mail box or twenty feet or even if they have to run back inside their home to get something. Some people are black and white about this too but how black and white can you get? What if you were putting groceries away, would you put your kid in the car after you put all your groceries away and shopping cart? After all the law states, "do not leave your kids alone in the car" well you are leaving them in the car when you are putting the groceries away or washing your car at the coin operating car wash place, or just standing right outside your car talking to someone or waiting on someone? Same as when I get out of my car and close the door and then open the passenger car door, my son was just left alone in the car for a few seconds. I just broke the law for a few seconds. Should I be arrested for that? Think of all the gray areas about leaving your kids alone in the car. If you leave them alone in the car for a few seconds after you get out and then you open the car door to get them out, you are not that black and white if you think that is okay.
Actually parents have gotten arrested for being thirty feet away from their car with their kid in it even though they could still see their car and I know people have called the police on someone for putting away a shopping cart because their kid was left alone in the car. You can leave your kid for three seconds and someone else sees it and thinks someone left their kid in there but they don't know it was just three seconds ago. Now I don't judge anyone when I see a shopping cart in the middle of a parking lot where it doesn't belong. I no longer think "lazy people" because I now think that cart could have been left by a mother who didn't want to take chances of CPS being called on her and the cops for putting away a shopping cart. Plus what if it's very hot out, maybe a mother didn't feel comfortable leaving her car running when she puts away her cart or didn't feel comfortable putting it away leaving her kid in the hot car for a few minutes or with the windows down.
I also think critical thinking helps you find the gray because of all the what ifs? I used to do what ifs a lot as a kid because I was always questioning the rules or what people say.
But yet I had an English teacher who was black and white about school work being turned in before the due date or on that day. She literally had no exceptions. If you are done with your school work, turn it in. When the due date comes and school gets out, if your work isn't turned in, it's late and she won't accept it and you get an F for it. It doesn't matter if you were sick or dying in the hospital or if a family member died so you took school off for it and went out of town. I bet she had that rule because she got so sick and tired of excuses for why they didn't turn their work in on time. So she made it black and white. But yet I still wondered of she have exceptions and was only saying those things so students turn in their darn school work and not have an excuse. She was an NT. There was no what ifs. I would make things black and white too if I got so sick and tired of excuses and late school work being turned in. But yet if you got done early with your school work, turn it in ASAP. You don't need to wait until the due date.
11 Jun 2011, 4:23 am
