I tried a claw machine today. And through a combination of determination and sheer luck, I walked away, after just one try, with a small stuffed animal.
This doesn't mean I will be clawing my way to a collection of stuffed things and assorted other claw-able doodads. One success doesn't mean there will be others, and how many doodads can one person own? I simply wanted to know how it felt--the positioning of the claw, the pressing of the button, the anxious wait as the claw either grabbed or didn't, the shaky ride from pick up to deposit into the prize shoot. As a parent of a kid fascinated by these machines, I just needed to know how it all felt.
I'll admit, it was kind of exciting. I get it now, in a way I didn't quite before. Sometimes, as the quote from To Kill A Mockingbird (loosely paraphrased here) goes, you don't really know until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes. I "walked" just a few yards, really, but in that short time, I gained more insight than hours of watching have given me.
We can't always take steps "in someone else's shoes," but we can make the effort to understand what moves someone. It takes a bit of stepping outside our own opinions and constraints. It takes an open mind, and some willing feet. And sometimes, it takes a few quarters. But walking that mile, or just a few steps, gives us perspective that helps us walk a lot farther. And the cost, in exercise and in quarters, can be well worth it.
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