We are all stubborn fools

Carrie and I recently re-watched all of the Harry Potter movies. They are all good. I was reminded of how I resisted the allure of Potter-mania for years. I saw the movies, but only with my family because my tix were paid for, though I liked them. I never read the books until one fateful drive from Provo to Overland Park, Kansas, when I got to spend time with the Cranes in America's Heartland when we were recently engaged. We listened to the third book, Prizoner of Azkaban, and it was riveting. When we got home before it was over I had to listen to the rest of the cassette tapes in Carrie's kitchen. I have since read all of the books after the third, but still not the first two.

Why was I so slow on the uptake with Harry? They are fabulous books. Everyone that read them told me that they were wonderful. And yet I resisted. I think I am a stubborn idiot.

I am like the native Tasmanian people, the famously "most backward" people in the whole world. They were cut off from the world when water levels rose and cut off Tasmania from mainland Australia. Not only did their culture not "progress" according to western standards, but it digressed, losing the technologies they had already been exposed to. Americans choose to resist good ideas sometimes as well, though with less debilitating results. We stubbornly stick to our ineffecient QWERTY keyboard. It was designed so that all the letters that are used most often are placed far apart so that old-school typewriters would not get jammed. Other designs for keyboards have been designed and produced, but we resist. It is pretty silly, right up there with resisting the metric system.

But I do it all the time. I still have not seen all of Titanic. I made a decision a long time ago that I would never see the movie. Why? I do not know. I think I was bothered by all the attention the movie was getting, and I decided to have an unneededly strong opinion about it. I think a couple of times I have said that I thought the movie was dumb, but how would I know. I have not seen it. Maybe some psychologist would say that I resist the Titanic because I am getting some reward the reinforces that behavior, but I can't think of what I am getting. I have watched scores of other cheesy, "girl-movies", and liked more than I publicly admit, so what is the problem with Titanic.

I think I need to listen to others better and learn from their opinions. Perhaps then I would stop needlessly punishing myself by withholding my participation in activities, movies, books, etc. that are good. I need to seek after things that are "of good report", and those opinions come from others. This post is way too long because I am waiting for Carrie to be ready for bed.