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Illustration: Gumball

Show students an ordinary gumball, explaining that there’s an art to fitting into the world—especially a world with gum.

We can chew gum, blow bubbles with it, even use it as a sticky adhesive if we’re desperate.

But unwise people make a mess of gum, like the little girl who stuck it in her hair.

At first she tried pulling it out. Then rubbing it out. When that didn’t work, she tried shampooing it out. But her best efforts only made matters worse.

By the time she finally told her parents, it looked like a small rodent had built a nest on the side of her head.

It took her father an hour—working with a special solvent—to finally rid her of the gum.

When it was all over, there was just a little solvent left in the bottle.

The little girl exclaimed, “Oh, good! Now we have some left in case it happens again!”

Sometimes, we just don’t “get it”!

We all make a mess of things when we lean on our own understanding. And it only gets worse when we don’t learn from the messes we create.