People think doctors are smart. People are wrong. I am a doctor, and my capacity for stupidity is ginormous. I can say with certainty that medical school did not make me stupid (although it may have helped) as my idiotic behavior goes way back. What follows may be the dumbest thing I ever did.
I was 20 years old and working in a supermarket stocking shelves, working on the household cleanser section, stocking bottles of Fantastic! Household cleaner. I turned and saw a young boy, probably 5 or 6 years old standing next to me. After saying hello, a prankster thought came into my mind. I thought, “he doesn't know it, but all of these bottles of cleaning spray come locked. They won't spray until you turn the nozzle to the open position! So if I grab a bottle and act like I am spraying him in the face, he will jump and nothing will happen! Then we will laugh and share a funny moment!”
Apparently, not ALL bottles come locked, for seconds later I stood mouth agape in front of a crying child who had just been sprayed in the eyes with household cleanser! I made a rush decision, and did the only thing my 20 year old mind could think of. I ran and hid in the back storeroom. No one had seen me do it...
I can only assume that his mom thought he was making up the story about an employee spraying him in the eyes (who would be dumb enough to do that!) and thought he must have done it himself. For all I know He could have gotten a beating when he got home!
I am now possessed with the fear that somewhere in America there is a blind man with a nervous twitch whose life was forever changed by one act of stupidity.
If you are out there- please forgive me.
Finally- if you are waiting for some deep moral or spiritual application to close out this post. There isn't any! Except for the age old instruction- “Don't be Stupid!”