The monkey trap

If you’ve been on the life help path for a period of time you may have heard about the monkey trap concept. A method for trapping a monkey, according to report, is to place some fruit or other bait within a stationary container that is large enough for the monkey to move its hand in and out of — if the monkey’s hand is empty. If the monkey has a full hand however, if it is clutching the bait within the stationary container, then it cannot remove its hand and becomes trapped. So the monkey comes along, discovers the bait, reaches into the stationary container and grabs hold, cannot withdraw its full hand and cannot move the stationary container, and becomes trapped. Of course all that would need to happen would be for the monkey to let go of the bait and withdraw its hand, and then it would be completely free. Apparently however the monkey typically doesn’t do this and so remains stuck. The significant point in all of this is that the monkey is trapping itself, it’s holding itself capt…