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You know that old story about the frog in the pot of boiling water?  The idea that if one dropped a frog into a boiling pot the frog would jump right out again.  But if one put a frog in a pot of tepid water and lit the burner, the frog would not notice the gradual increase in temperature and would poach nicely, thank you very much.

I hate that story.  I hate when it is used to explain away and dismiss why people stay in difficult circumstances.  It was just so gradual that they didn’t notice.  As if we don’t notice anything until we’re half-cooked.  I suggest that the frog is plenty busy trying to solve his rapidly warming problem, he just hasn’t hit upon the leap-out-of-the-pot plan yet.  A problem not solved is not the same as a problem ignored. Sometimes the answer doesn’t look like the answer until the situation changes enough to warrant it.  And then, curiously enough, the answer looks so obvious we cannot believe we didn’t select it a long time ago.  Perhaps, a long time ago, it wasn’t yet the answer.

Annemarie