I of oTHER (;IFTS To EASE MY ----.--..... "PAIN:' No Pain, No (III-gotten) Gain Jason, the gamer in this cartoon, has gotten the tactic for holiday gift success right, but, I think he's gotten the reason for that success wrong. My own experience tells me that his parents will overcompensate with other gifts not so much to ease his pain but to ease their own pain at having to break their promise to him. FOXTROT © 2005 Bill Amend. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. All rights reserved. COMMITMENT IS THE KEY _ "Right. Uh, where are you going?" "I'm going to take the road-race set right back to the store." I was so angry I was nearly shouting. "Wait. Think for a minute first
POLARITY 1 0 . G O I N G TO EXTREMES Experimenting with any polarized system involves going to the extremes. Comedy or tragedy may result as people who have habitually leaned to one side of a polarity not only experiment with the unaccustomed opposite quality, but take it to the limit. Those who have been shy take new-found confidence too far, becoming obnoxious instead of suave or self-assured. T h e y overcompensate, missing the point of balance. T h e y may then retreat to the opposite extreme of sullenness or some other exagger ated form of their original behavior. Eventually, through a series of such pendulum swings they may learn a new way to behave, somewhere in the middle ground. Learning how to handle any quality is a process o f finding the boundaries by experimentation. In many polarized relationships, one person is more experienced
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