here, there and beyond: Tempting

Have you ever noticed how much you want to do something the minute someone says you can’t? It doesn’t matter what it is. The desire to prove them wrong or do it anyway just pops up. It happens when I’m doing construction and someone tells me I can’t do ….. ‘Well, I’ll show them.’ Or someone tells me that something is too heavy for me (even when I move them all the time)—but that is more annoying than anything.

I worked with the team from Ebenezer church in Hillsborough on their painting project last Thursday as there was no school for Dessalines Day (hero of the independence). They had been painting the church offices at our Cite Soleil center and were almost finished. (A good time to help) The offices looked really good (though before seeing the pictures I had nothing to compare it to as I'd never been back there). A bright white on dingy walls really brightened up the place. The walls were all white with a dark grey trim (doors, frames, benches, baseboard). It was basic touch up time for all the doors and frames- where any white had dripped and needed to be covered.

They worked faster than planned and what was to take all day finished at lunch time (never complain about that). All morning we would work and take breaks when we wanted and there were plenty of places to sit with all the wooden benches in the hallway and all the concrete benches permanently attached to the walls. Then it was time to paint those concrete benches grey. Done. No problem.

If there is any choice in the matter, I don’t want to sit on those concrete benches. All morning I’d chosen to sit on the wooden benches or the chairs. But now the concrete benchers were covered in wet paint and I kept having to catch myself from sitting on them. After they were painted, it seemed to be the only place I wanted to sit.

It made me think of how we really want to do what we aren't supposed to. What we are told not to do seems to be the cool thing. Why? Is it because we want to see if we can get away with it or do we really want to do it? We see it often in teenagers and we try to use reverse psychology. But it doesn’t stop (or start) with the teen years. It is in us all and continues (at least as long as I am aware of).