Analysis or Part 2 of The Hole in the Sidewalk

In my last blog post I presented the poem, "There's a Hole in My Sidewalk," by Portia Nelson. In this post I will write an analysis of the poem. I have a rather well written analysis with no author cited. Therefore, it will be credited to "Person" I will add my own comments within the context of this post as well and will preface those comments with "Tim". 

Chapter 1

I walk down the street

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I fall in

I am lost

I am helpless

It isn’t my fault

It takes forever to find a way out.

Person: This is a great analogy that describes the process of change that we all experience as we  journey through life………let’s take a closer look.

Chapter 1 is where we initially find ourselves. We have identified that we need to change, “I fall in, I am lost…” but have not taken responsibility for, “It isn’t my fault.” This is the first step in the process of change is to recognize that we have a problem.

 

 

Tim: I copied the above as written. The grammatical error “is not my fault”. Couldn’t  resist.

 Back to the matter at hand.  Some folks take umbrage with the “it isn’t my fault” part of chapter 1. It’s important to note that the “it” that she is referring to is not things that have happened in one’s life that are not your fault. The “it” refers to self destructive and deleterious life patterns that we have chosen in reaction to our problems.   Falling in the hole represents those patterns that get us nowhere. Realizing that they aren’t working or allowing for the positive change that would make us healthier is to realize there is a problem. It is not referring to original life problems.

Chapter 2

I walk down the street

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I pretend I don’t see it.

I fall in again.

I can’t believe I am in the same place.

But it isn’t my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

Person:   In chapter 2 we fall in the hole, we can’t believe we’ve fallen in the same hole one more time! We still haven’t taken responsibility for changing, “It isn’t my fault” and  “It still takes a long time go get out.” Why do I keep falling in this hole? Who’s doing this to me? If other people would just do things in the right way my life would be much easier.

Tim:  ( Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the best writing by Person.)  In my analysis, the person, representing any of us, realized in chapter 1 that things are not going well in certain areas of life or perhaps in life overall.  We realized there is a problem.  Usually the problem is that our life is not getting  better because of the way we are reacting and choosing to think about it.  Ah, yes, irrational behavior!  Even though we came to realize that some sort of problem exists, we choose not to think it has anything to do with how we are coping. We don’t take responsibility for the state of affairs called our life.  Someone or something else makes us do what we do. We don’t have the power to control our life as it is. We convince ourselves these are true statements. So when we see the problem (the hole) we dismiss it (pretend it isn’t there) and fall in the hole again (resume our dysfunctional behavior.)

I’ll continue the last three chapters in the next blog.

I want to thank Widow-Lady for knighting me officially with the hero name:

Your rational nemesis, Tim