The Man Who Was Shot in the Neck

Many years ago Mark told me a story about his earlier days.  When he was in elementary school, there was a construction trailer on the grounds near the perimeter.  It was largely ignored until a rumor about it was started.

The rumor was that there was a guy who was living in that trailer.  He was shot in the neck.  He was in perpetual bleeding from that wound, and was a danger to anyone who would go near that trailer.  Of course he wasn't seen, but that little factoid was ignored.  There was a man who was shot in the neck living in there, and he was a threat.

As with some childhood rumors, this one got out of hand.  No kid wanted to walk by that trailer, whether he or she was alone or with a group.  The area was avoided during PE.  And soon it got to where the kids didn't want to be outside waiting for their parents to pick them up.  The Man Who Was Shot in the Neck just might come running out of that trailer, snatch you, and do you harm.  Think about it some.  Would you go near a trailer with kind of person living inside of it?  I wouldn't.

It got so bad that the prinicipal finally got on the intercom one afternoon.  He insisted emphatically that there was no man who was shot in the neck.  There was no one living in the trailer.  There was no danger.  Again, there is no such thing as the Man Who Was Shot in the Neck.  No such person ever existed, no such person exists, and no such person will ever exist in the future.  End of story.

We laughed about that when he told that story to me.  It reminded me of an incident when I was five years old, and convinced that there was a monster living inside of the storm drain on the street where we lived, and if you looked in the hole you would see it in there and you would see it looking at you.  And because we wanted to see it, we saw it.

Anyway, events at work have reminded me of the absurd story of the Man Who Was Shot in the Neck.

In other words, it's a lot like an elementary school atmosphere there these days.

My lead and my manager would disagree with that.

They insist that it's a day care center.

Yes, we're having some personnel problems.

No, I won't tell you what they are.  Not at this time.