Editorial April 28, 1997 Issue

How high can we reach?

William E. Moody

Most of us probably don't give a lot of thought to fleas. Unless, perhaps, we work as an entomologist, or our business is pest control, or we have a dog or cat that brings home more of these creatures than we'd like to have around the house! Yet there are people who actually train fleas. There are even flea circuses. I heard a flea story the other day.

It seems that if you put a flea in an inverted glass jar, he will repeatedly try to jump out. The flea doesn't see the glass, however, and each time he jumps, he hits the clear glass ceiling. With little effort, of course, the flea could readily jump high enough to escape if there weren't that transparent barrier. Yet after a while, the flea becomes convinced he can't jump any higher than the glass. And, anyhow, what's the use? He just keeps hitting his head!

At that point, apparently, you can turn the jar over, right side up, and leave the lid off. You can now take the flea anywhere in that open jar. The flea will not escape. He'll continue to jump only as high as the jar itself and no higher. The flea has been convinced (fooled?) by circumstances into believing that his experience is limited. He is still fully capable at any moment of jumping as high as he needs to and escaping; he is simply conditioned to believe that he cannot. He's trapped. But the limits are self-imposed. And so, the confines of that glass jar have become the flea's reality and his world.

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