11 Self-Betrayal "Now at first you're going to think this is a silly story. It's not even a workplace story. We'll apply it to the workplace when we get a little more under our belts. Anyway, it's just a simple little story--mundane even. But it illustrates well how we get in the box in the first place. "One night a number of years ago, when David was just an infant, I was awakened by his wailing cries. He was prob- ably four months old or so at the time. I remember glancing at the clock. It was around one in the morning. In the flash of that moment, I had an impression or a sense or a feeling--a thought of something I should do. It was this: `Get up and tend to David so that Nancy can sleep.' "If you think about it, this sort of sense is very basic," he continued. "We're all people. And when we're out of the box and seeing others as people, we have a very basic sense about others--namely that, like ourselves, they have hopes, needs, cares, and fears. And on occasion, as a result of this sense, we have impressions of things to do for others--things we think might help them, things we can do for them, things we want to do for them. You know what I'm talking about?" "Sure, that's clear enough," I said. "This was such an occasion--I felt a desire to do some- thing for Nancy. But you know what? I didn't act on it. I just stayed in the bed, listening to David wail." I could relate. I'd waited out Todd and Laura plenty of times. "You might say I `betrayed' my sense of what I should do for Nancy," he said. "That's sort of a strong way to say it, 66