A poisoned well

"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him."

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Those we listen to, or rather, those who impact us with their words hold a great deal of control over us. For better or worse, their words can direct our actions and shape our future.

The problem with this give and take – the speaker and the listener – is that it involves two humans, both prone to error. No one intends to listen to fallacy. So, how do you avoid being contaminated when their counsel becomes unsound?

There was a small town nestled against a mountainside. Over time a bacteria began to grow in its natural water source. Because of the bacteria’s slow development, the town’s people didn’t notice they were slowly being poisoned from the very thing that had been sustaining them all those years.

Because of its location, the town was difficult to get to. It rarely saw a visitor. But one spring when the town was more accessible a young traveler passed through. He was appalled by the town’s terrible tasting water. The residents couldn’t understand why the foreigner didn’t appreciate their freshwater, taken straight from fresh mountain spring.

As a biologist, he determined to uncover the cause of the appalling taste. The young man climbed the mountain to the beginning of the water source. What he found was the source of water’s terrible taste: a pool of water overrun by harmful organisms.

It wasn’t until an outside perspective pointed out the problem. To the townspeople's chagrin, their well had slowly been poisoning them without their knowledge.