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The story of Sam and Sue.
Not long ago and not far away at all, lived a
young, burly man who was known by his friends as Sam. He was a sympathetic
guy with a pleasant smile and a way about him that attracted many people from
near and far to establish themselves and start a new, promising life in his
neighborhood. Sam waspopular, and everybody loved him.
One day Sam
met a young lady who told him her name was Sue. Sam’s natural friendliness
and gregariousness was like glue to Sue, and before our friend knew it, Sue
became a regular guest in Sam’s house. Slender Sue made a kind, delicate and
vulnerable impression on everybody, but beneath that facade,
she was hiding a
sturdy, sticky, domineering, and manipulative character, which Sam was about
to find out.
With a heart-warming smile, Sue visited Sam one evening,
surprising him with some homemade cookies. They watched television for a
while, and chitchatted about all kinds of things. After a while, Sue claimed
that she was tired and asked Sam if she could rest on his couch for a while.
Good-natured Sam
agreed, and quietly continued his evening chores: feeding
the pets, preparing for tomorrow’s work, and so on. When it came close to
bedtime, he woke Sue up and told her it was time for her to go home, but she
complained that she was too tired to even get up. Besides, she complained, it
was now too dark and scary outside.
Sam found himself in a dilemma, as
he was not too pleased with the idea of having a lady sleep in his house
without a chaperone, but his good, hospitable heart soon won the
inner-struggle, and he let his friend stay on the couch. He laid a blanket
over her, wished her goodnight, and went to his bedroom for a well-deserved
night’s rest.
The next morning, Sam woke up and found Sue lying beside
him in bed! She smiled lovingly, yet with a conniving undertone, and told him
that all the neighbors now knew that they were a couple, and that Sam had no
choice but to marry her in order to make “an honest woman” out of her. Sam
was astonished, as he was convinced that he had done nothing dishonorable.
All he did was accommodate a tired friend in need!
However, Sue was
determined to get her way, and started a smear campaign against poor Sam, who
soon felt pressured by the demeaning looks he got from his friends and
neighbors to do what they considered his duty: marrying Sue..
This was
the beginning of Sam’s end. Soon enough his social life started descending as
Sue began to reveal her real, intimidating character. She started menacing
Sam that if he dared to go out even once without her, she would let the whole
world know what a bad and deceitful husband he was. So Sam, peace-loving as
he was, stayed home.
When his friends wanted to visit him, Sue made clear
that they were not welcome, as Sam needed to take care of his marital duties
now, and that she would not shrink from smudging their names either. So, one
by one, Sam’s friends started staying away:
* The physicians because
Sue threatened to dig into their career and accuse them of malpractice for
whatever went wrong at one time or another;
* The restaurant holders,
because Sue promised to arrange a situation in which they would have to pay
their last penny for some other restaurant related misconduct;
* The
entrepreneurs, because Sue warned that she would scrutinize their lives in
such a way that any venture would be bound to fail if only she could find
even the smallest mistake in their past;
* The company presidents and
managers, because Sue foreshadowed to set up their workers to file lawsuits
against them for even the smallest negligence on- and outside of the work
environment;
* The regular working people because Sue imperiled to stage
a troublesome situation in either their private- or work-life, which would
force them to pay during the rest of their lives for something they had not
even willfully committed!
Gradually, everybody started avoiding Sam,
the man who was once known as the most popular, opportunity-oriented,
friendly, warm-hearted guy in the country. No one wanted anything to do with
this person whose life had become so ruined by this deceitfully frail looking
yet diehard and destructive monster, Sue.
But the seed of Sue’s
spitefulness was planted and soon started spreading beyond the walls of Sam’s
mansion: The neighborhood turned into a dogmatic, cold vicinity, where
everyone was controlled by Sue: Gone was the spontaneity and the freedom with
which people used to approach each other in
pre-Sue days:
* The men
did not dare to compliment the women anymore for their attractive looks,
because they were afraid that Sue would have the ladies interpret even the
slightest approach as sexual harassment. So guess what: the population of
lonely, isolated, bitter, and fearful people grew tremendously.
* The
physicians did not dare to treat patients outside of their
immediate competency anymore, because they became terrified that Sue would
teach these patients to file a grievance against them for anything that could
possibly go wrong. So guess what: a number of people, especially children,
started dying needlessly, because they had to be transported to areas far
outside Sam’s neighborhood for treatment, which caused critical time to be
wasted..
* The workplaces became increasingly less spiritual because
workers did not trust their bosses; bosses did not trust their workers; and
workers and bosses did not trust their clients; as Sue had made them all
aware of the ease of finding fault in each other’s behavior and getting
involved in lengthy, costly, name-smudging proceedings. So guess what:
spirituality in the workplace became a utopia that would probably never be
achieved.
Soon, the vicinity was filled with lonely people who all seemed
to live on a deserted island: the island called “Don’t touch, don’t look, and
don’t approach.”
Everything became increasingly expensive as well, as
everyone needed to cover him- or herself for reprisals that were constantly
leering behind every corner due to Sue’s lessons of intolerance. Freedom was
history. And Sam’s big house, once a haven to countless souls in search of an
honest chance to develop their talents, turned into an abandoned
castle.
The moral of the story? Uncle Sam’s fertile, promising soil is
being heavily endangered by litigations left and right: The spirit of
adventure, endeavor, and spontaneity is being suffocated by the continuous
and surging hazard of lawsuits….Sue!
Joan Marques, Burbank, April 19,
2004
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About the
Author:
Joan Marques emigrated from Suriname, South America, to California,
U.S., in 1998. She holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership, a Master’s
in
Business Administration, and is currently a university instructor
in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web
sites at http://www.joanmarques.com
and
http://www.spiritcounts.com
Joan's
manual "Feel Good About Yourself," a six part series to get you over the
bumps in life and onto success, can be purchased and downloaded at:
http://www.non-books.com/FeelGoodSeries.html
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