People are so easily swayed by words. Take for example when you're told that that dude's got something against you. Several iterations of "why?" can race through your mind as you try to pinpoint the time when you may have stepped on his proverbial toes. What the heck did I do to make him not like me? Maybe he caught me when I wasn't smiling (right again, Mom). Or when someone suggests that another person might have an interest beyond friendship, your interaction with that person takes a turn for the awkward. Suddenly, you notice that they notice. Completely innoculous attention suddenly is filled with artifically conjured "come hither" advances. Okay, maybe not. But suggestion has more power than we give it credit...at least when it comes to people's proclivities towards other people.
So how about when your "I've been on skis since I could walk" friend tells you that the hill isn't as bad as the map makes it out to look. "Everywhere else, this would be a blue, but it's a black here. You can handle it." So after realizing there is no other way down, you (okay, I admit it, this is me) reluctantly head over the edge, cutting through mogul after mogul, while taking my friend's name in vain in the only two breaths I take the whole way down. Looking back up at the bumpy face of a mountain, my friend quips, "By the way, it's actually a blue, but everywhere else, it's definitely a black!" I'm not sure which was better, but I had the inkling to impale him with one of my ski poles. Lucky for him, he's much faster than me on skis (nevermind his being my ride home). Not quite analagous to the premise with which I started, but in general, we are susceptible to the pull of people's words, especially from people you trust. Or from those you thought you trusted.
Moral of the story; don't trust anyone. =P
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