Why are people so hard to fix?
“Come! Come! Quickly!” shouted the excited girl as she tightly held her little sister’s hand and pulled her deeper into the sea of people. As they raced through the busy outdoor flea market, they passed stalls filled with old-tattered dresses and suits that smelled of moth balls. They skipped and hopped over dust covered carpets; which were littered with multi-colored flip-flops and cowboy boots made of alligator skins. They nearly knocked over a large plastic table, which was filled the designer sunglasses that were all made in China.
Just before her little sister was about to throw a fit, Diana spotted what she was looking for.
“Julia! Look over there!” shouted Diana as she pointed at a rickety, make-shift tent. The sign above it read “Free Repairs”.
“That man over there with the funny glasses and big beard is fixing things!” shouted Diana as she excitedly skipped over to crowd-filled stall. “Maybe he can fix your teddy bear as well!”
As the two girls waited patiently in line, they kept peering over the edge of the man’s make-shift workbench. They saw him use a wide array of tools to poke and prod at various broken gadgets and gizmos.
When the two girls finally reached the front of the line, the little girl sheepishly placed her tattered doll on the table. The tired but kind man blinked thoughtfully behind his thick microscopic glasses as he carefully surveyed every inch of the worn-out plush. After 10-minutes of intensive reconstructive surgery, her teddy bear was fully restored to its original state.
“Wow! You can fix anything!” exclaimed the little girl.
He grinned for the briefest of moments. But it waxed and waned away as he solemnly replied, “I can fix anything…except for my little daughter.”
In astonishment, the little girl asked him why he couldn’t fix her.
With a heavy sigh, he said, “because she can say ‘no’ to me.”
Fixing people is an endeavor that many people bravely attempt, but very few people succeed in. The reason why it is so hard to fix another person is because they always have the free choice to reject the offer.
