When’s the last time you put two (or more) dumb decisions together back-to-back? Usually the second or tertiary dumb is a reaction or attempted correction or a rationalization or a cover-up or any of a thousand you-name-it dumbs resulting from the first dumb. I don’t need to go to the news to give you examples of double-dumbs, but I will because that’s less embarrassing than me relating mine.

How about this one. A guy in Virginia robs a bank and while he’s doing it posts two videos and a photo of his escapade to his Instagram account. He’s picked up 20 minutes later. He claims innocence. “I decided to go to the bank,” he says. “She (the teller) gave me money, and I left.” He goes on. “A robbery is going in and demanding something and taking the money. I didn’t do that.” He explained that he only asked for the money and he included the word “please.”

Yeah. Dumb-Dumb. He’s in jail.

Here’s another one. This happened in West Virginia (Wonder if he’s related to our polite bank thief?). This robber goes into a pharmacy wearing full camouflage and a paintball mask. So no one will notice him I guess. He whips out a pepper spray can and starts spraying to incapacitate the employees. Problem is he walked right into the cloud of pepper spray he just created. He staggered out of the business and was captured.

How hard can it be to find a guy in full camouflage wearing a paintball mask and walking like he’s drunk? 

Okay, so none of us can really identify with the dumbness of robbing a bank or a store and the double dumbs associated with these acts. Maybe this next example is something that some of us may have at least contemplated doing.

We’re moving out of the Virginia/West Virginia neck-of-the-woods now and down to a more laid back Florida. You ever have problems with your computer? Well, this fellow in Orlando did—whether it was his or the computer’s fault is immaterial. In his frustration he whips out a gun he just purchased and shoots eight bullets into the offender. He says “he realizes shooting his computer wasn’t the right thing to do.” (Yep. A double-dumb). But losing his computer isn’t his only problem. He has a summons to appear in court.

I wonder what the penalty in Florida is for computercide. Check it out here.

I suspect that just about all of us can relate our own very personal double-dumb experiences. I can’t say that I’ve eliminated the possibility of these happening anymore in my life. I can say that I know how to avoid them. Applying that knowledge consistently, however, is still a bit problematic for me.

My very wise friend, Lloyd Rasmussen, used to tell me: “There are two kinds of decisions a smart man will make. The right ones. And the ones he makes right.” Maybe a corollary to this is: There are two reasons why we don't make the right decision. We don’t know what the right decision is. Or, we know what the right decision is and choose not to make it.

Seems to me the key to avoiding double-dumbs and, like my friend Lloyd, ultimately turning all of our decisions into the right ones, is our ready willingness to recognize when we are doing wrong. And stop it! Peace is the result.

The Savior’s word for that willingness is repentance.