Why do some people bypass our defenses so easily?
Late one rainy night, a pink diamond valued at 50 million dollars was stolen. The owner of this coveted jewel was a respected Duke who had already experienced multiple break-ins in the past. But his state-of-the-art security system was always able to easily detect and capture every single intruder… except for this one.
As world-class detectives were ushered into the Duke’s luxurious chateau to investigate the scene of the crime, each and every one of them left utterly puzzled and clueless. For no fingerprints could be found. None of the hundreds of laser trip wires that spider-webbed throughout the entire room was ever triggered. Last but not least, none of the security cameras saw any sign of human activity in the room.
Just when all hope was lost… one of the detectives noticed that there was a black cat that scurried about freely in the room. And just as the cat was about to leap into the nearest laser trip wire, the detective sprang forward to catch it in midair. He was worried that it’s presence would set off the alarm.
But directly behind him came a light chuckle. “You can put him down, detective” calmly ordered the Duke. “Our family cat can freely roam where it pleases; even here in the atrium. For we have specially programmed our trip wires to ignore the presence of our furry friend.
And within that very moment, the detective knew where the diamond was hidden. They found it carelessly lying in the bed where cat slept.
Like this Duke, many of us protect our hearts by setting up a complex web of laser trip wires. And our emotional security system is often tuned to detect the presence of people who are most likely to hurt us; including those who may even be quite close to us. But the strange phenomena is that we often allow perfect strangers to waltz right through our defenses, because we have yet to perceive or consider them as being a possible threat.
