Article September 3, 1979 Issue

Banish evil

J. WOODRUFF SMITH

When our scout troop went on a camping trip, there was always a tenderfoot to break in. We'd be roasting potatoes, and one of us would sharpen a stick, spear a potato, call the tenderfoot's name, and toss the potato at him. Invariably he'd catch and then toss it from one hand to the other, to our delight.

The oddity was that he didn't throw it at anybody else. The tenderfoot always seemed to think it was his hot potato—that he had to keep it and juggle it. Just one time a lad caught it and hurled it back into the embers.

How do we deal with error? Do we believe it's our trouble? Do we handle it by putting a handle on it, giving it a biological name, locating it in the anatomy, mentally juggling it as though it were temporarily true? The lad with the quick wit got rid of that hot potato instantly by consigning it to the coals. He did not act as if it were his. He did not temporize with it.

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