A Lowes’ commercial reminded me of a dumb thing a friend did when we were juniors in high school. In the commercial a man jumps up to slap a Lowes banner above the double doors. Gary jumped up to give a double-sided metal pharmacy sign a karate chop. He broke a bone in his right hand and had it in a cast for six weeks. A couple of days after his cast was cut off we were walking down the same sidewalk. I asked him why he did something so dumb. He said he probably didn’t think about what could happen.

            How many times have people done things without thinking past the immediate action? An example is the CIA moved the Ayatollah Khomeini  to France to keep him safe from the Shah’s retribution. The CIA housed and supported him until the Shah was overthrown.

            The most obvious not thinking is all the owners and CEOs of Germany’s big businesses that helped Adolph Hitler to gain power. We supported the Soviet Union to defeat Hitler which might not ever have happened if Stalin had lost. Because of that support the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, and several close WW III incidents happened.

            Why rethink if the resulting problem will belong to the next mayor, governor, or president?

            Oh yes, you may have guessed it already! Right after Gary told me he hadn’t thought about why, we walked under the same sign – he jumped up and hit the other side. Yep! Six more weeks! Sometimes we keep hoping for a different result from doing stupid things.