Reaction

When I give a keynote lecture, almost invariably someone will say, “Man, I could never go through what you went through…”

Almost invariably I’ll reply, “You don’t know what you can go through until you have to go through it.”

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about this whole missing child, stonewalling young mother casey here in Orlando. If not, here’s the quick and dirty details…

A 22 year old mother, Casey, did not report her two year old, Kaley, missing for almost a month. Casey is now in jail, charged with obstruction of justice, but no one seems to believe little Kaley is still alive. The cops are treating the case as a homicide, not a missing person.

Casey, the mom, is in jail, but will not cooperate with law enforcement and investigators, constantly giving them stories about a babysitter who is, from everything we know, fictional.

Enter stage left Casey’s mother, Cindy. Cindy is one of the most self centered individuals I’ve ever heard interviewed on TV (and that's saying something). Instead of being concerned with finding her granddaughter, she’s instead chosen to use her time in the limelight to complain about how the Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. has handled the case.

This is obviously the big story around Orlando-everyone is talking about it. I overheard a gentleman say, “Well, people keep complaining about how the grandmother is acting. But until you’ve been in that situation, you don’t really know what you’d do.”


Sound like anything you’ve heard before? You don’t know what you can go through until you have to go through it.

I totally, totally understand irrational, whack job reactions. I do. And people are forgiven for making things seem even more bizarre from initial reactions.

The thing is, the grandmother, Cindy, is saying this stuff a full two weeks after Kaley was reported missing. This is no longer a reaction, but exactly how this woman feels!

That’s the difference-reaction is temporary. Once reality has time to set in, THAT’s when the real truth comes out. And the truth here is (or so it seems) that Grandma Cindy is more concerned with her daughter’s incarceration than she is with working with law enforcement to find Kaley. Ridiculous.

We all are allowed to act badly at times. That’s what a reaction is. This, however, has proven itself to be NOT reaction, but reality.