The Bewildering Dance of a Paradigm Shift
By Sam Morrison
A paradigm shift is the movement from one paradigm to another – a change in assumption, thought, expectation, or belief because of acquired knowledge on the subject. Many people, myself included, experience paradigm shifts on a daily basis, however the incident I have chosen to write about did not happen to me personally.
A gathering is taking place one night at a Legion and people are dancing, listening to the music, or just chatting with their friends and enjoying the night. A young woman approaches an older gentleman who is sitting alone at a table near the back. It looks as if the man had been accompanied by others at one point, but when she approaches him, he is alone.
“Would you like to dance?” she asks him, flashing a sweet smile and moving aside to allow the man room to stand up. The woman expects that the man will dance with her because she is young and beautiful, and what older man wouldn’t be flattered by such a request?
To her surprise, the man shakes his head and politely refuses the offer. Confused, the woman returns to her table where most of her friends remain seated. Unable to understand why the older man responded to her in such a manner, the young woman positioned herself so she could view the man as the people he had come to the gathering with returned to his table.
Perhaps he had an overprotective wife who would be upset if she saw her husband dancing with a younger, attractive woman? None of the older woman seemed to show any particular interest in the man so a few songs later, the young woman decided she would try to get the man to accompany her in a dance once more.
“How about now, would you like to dance?” she asks him again, flashing another sweet smile. The man, again, shakes his head and politely declines the request. The young woman is beginning to feel offended, so she demands to know why the man won’t dance with her.
“I’d love to dance with you, but I’ve only got one leg.”
A wave of discomfort washes over the woman; it wasn’t her that was stopping the man from dancing, it was the fact that he was physically unable to do so! The young woman apologized and returned to her table, having gained a shocking realization towards the rejection she had faced.
Because of the paradigm shift, the young woman was no longer offended by the older gentleman’s actions and felt slight remorse for how she had spoken upon being rejected for a second time. With the knowledge she had gained on the situation, the woman was no longer able to think back to how things had been before she knew of the man’s amputation.
This is a perfectly simple example of a paradigm shift.