In a recent talk,1 a man described his wife’s thoughts and action in jumping from a moving, 18-wheel semi while holding their first-born, infant son. The truck cab had suddenly filled with thick, choking smoke, and as her husband maneuvered the rig to a stop, she believed the engine was on fire. She feared the truck would explode, and that they would all die. And so, before the semi was quite stopped, she jumped out. When her husband exclaimed afterwards: “What, in the world, were you thinking? Do you know how dangerous that was? You could have been killed”; she replied: “I was just trying to save our son.”
Now, based on her beliefs and fears, what could be more “rational” than that?! What, in her mind (or ours, in like circumstance,) would be the least catastrophic (the most reasonable) of two possible actions:
1) stay put and die in a fiery blaze; orYET, at the conclusion of his story, the husband described his wife’s action as courageous, but “utterly irrational.”
2) leap with some risk of injury?
Perhaps it was intended as humor, but I instantly bristled in sympathy with the poor wife who had, no doubt, endured retellings of “irrational action” for 40 years. And I exclaimed out loud and LOUD. “That was NOT irrational ! ! !
If someone knows the man, would they please read to him, a definition:
Rationality is the quality or state of being reasonable, based on facts or reason. Rationality is a normative concept that refers to the conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe, or of one's actions with one's reasons for action. … A rational decision is one that is not just reasoned, but is also optimal for achieving a goal or solving a problem.Maybe he could apologize to his wife, and maybe this can be a lesson to us all that:
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationality )
▪ a wife’s rationality does not depend on what an observing husband thinks, knows, or believes (and vice versa);
▪ if we think someone is acting (or has acted) irrationally, perhaps we should get down off our “rational” horse and listen to their reasons (their POV), and realize
▪ what looks irrational may really be rational, even transrational, as in the words:
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.”
~ Blaise Pascal ~
“Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.”
~ Voltaire, The Works: Voltaire ~
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1. Video: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/what-are-you-thinking?lang=eng&media=video#watch=video (between minute: 00.16 and 03.06)
Audio: http://media2.ldscdn.org/assets/general-conference/april-2014-general-conference/2014-04-2080-elder-w-craig-zwick-64k-eng.mp3 (between minute: 00.16 and 03.06)
