F. Stephen Foster · ← All posts
To begin my second post, I extend a warning. I have set traps for you. Traps so clever that I’ve planted them in plain sight. Traps that you won’t avoid. Do you think you will see them? That you will avoid them?
I hope so. I hope that you believe that you will be keen-eyed as you read on. I want you to believe that you will spot and avoid my every trap. You are wrong, but believe what you will.
My belief isn’t like your belief; mine extends along this tangent: I believe that falling into my traps is an excellent use of your time. Building my traps took forethought, time and effort, but building traps for you to fall into is an excellent use of my time.
We normally think of traps negatively. We’ve been taught since childhood to avoid mousetraps that sting and bear traps that break bones. But traps can be helpful, can be enjoyable. If I wish to teach a toddler about mousetraps, I can tell him to touch the cheese. When he touches the cheese, springing the trap, he could rethink his assumptions about the world.