Article July 1, 1972 Issue

Freedom from Dispositional Faults

GEORGE W. LEDBETTER

One beautiful spring day I stopped by a park along an ocean drive. The windows of the car were open, and a large bee flew in and then tried to get out through the curved area of the windshield. Each time I attempted to help it find the open window it would buzz wildly about the car and fly back to the windshield. It looked as if the bee was sure the lovely flowers in the park could be reached by flying through the windshield. You could say the bee was "locked in" the car by appearances.

We often see a person apparently locked into a bad disposition which has limited his progress. Perhaps we ourselves have some qualities that detract from our happiness, our success, our likability quotient. These are often referred to as temperamental tendencies, difficult dispositional traits, or inherited national characteristics.

Some of these undesirable qualities are impatience, jealousy, stubbornness, temper, egotism, selfishness, faultfinding, moodiness—and they can make our life and the lives of those around us pretty miserable. Even when we recognize them for what they are and want to be rid of them, they may appear so much a part of us that we feel "locked in" to them.

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