Ashley Green-Thompson Ashley Green-Thompson
My dog Milo sleeps in the house. She didn’t always. When thunderstorms raged, she would scratch on the door to be let inside. And I would acquiesce. When it got cold, she would forego her warm dog house that I had made for her and make puppy dog eyes at me to be let inside. Pretty soon, she had pushed the boundaries to the point that she is now an inside dog with a dedicated sleeping spot, in fair weather or foul. I am standing firm against her entering my bedroom.
And so by constantly pushing the boundaries of what reality looks like, Milo has successfully changed what is considered acceptable. Kids (my grandkid in this instance) do it all the time. Let them eat their supper in front of the television just one time, and then try to enforce the rule of eating at table. You will lose.
In all spheres of life, we start with small encroachments on the standard way of doing things. We chase the occasional traffic light when we are in a hurry. Pretty soon we realise that we can shave a few minutes off our commute each day if we regard orange lights as an invitation to accelerate. Imperceptibly, our actions and those of a few others start impacting the behaviour of wider society. Now, when you respond to a green traffic light, you’d better pause a second to see if there’s no car barrelling down from the other direction. Just visit any of the big intersections in Jozi. Jumping red lights is now part of standard driving behaviour.
