Introduction J

"GET MY SOCKS, WOULD YOU, HONEY~" Linda scurried around and

brought her husband a pair. "No, not these," he said. "I need the

black ones." She rushed off to fetch him another pair.

My wife and I watched similar scenes throughout the weekend.

When Pat and I drove home, we talked about Bill and Linda. We

both said we didn t like Bill. At first, we weren t sure exactly

why. But as we talked, it became clear. His helplessness put us

off. Every time he asked Linda to do something he could more

easily do for himself, we cringed inside. We also agreed that we

didn t have much respect for Linda. We figured she must not have

much for herself either or she wouldn t put up with Bill s behav-

ior. We decided not to see them again.

Nearly everyone is put off by full-grown people expecting oth-

ers to take care of them--like the coworker who can t do anything

on his own, the husband who blames all of his unhappiness on his

wife or the man whose first thought when meeting you is always,

"What can you do for me?"