Two
Saturdays ago I went paintballing for the first time ever. I had always wanted
to go, but had never actually gone before. My roommate and her brother had a
groupon for CPX Sports in Joliet, IL (http://cpxsports.com/), so we made plans to go for a whole day of
fun. I didn’t know what to expect, so I was kind of nervous, but still very,
very excited. We left at 8:00am Saturday morning, got lost in construction on
the way, and finally pulled into the parking lot around 10:00am. It was a foggy
morning, but by the time we got checked in and watched the safety video the sun
had come out. Our groupon gave us free admission, free gun and goggle rentals,
and 1,000 paintballs, so I paid virtually nothing for the whole trip. I was in
a good mood. I already liked the facility (who doesn’t make first impressions
based on the restrooms?) before I had actually started playing.
I figured out how to fill my CO2
canister, load my paintball hopper, and adjust my goggles, then decided
to just dive right in. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The very
first game I played I had the safety engaged on my gun the entire time and just
hid behind a mesh screen the whole two minutes I played before I got shot.
There was a player from the other team in the “room” next to me about ten feet
away who shot me twice – once in each hip. I thought I was going to cry it hurt
so bad. I wasn’t sure what was going on because I had thought that only my team
was in the building, so I just stood there for a couple minutes trying to
figure out who shot me. During this time I got shot about two or three more
times, only adding to my confusion. I finally realized that I needed to get out
of the line of fire and ran out of the building to the “dead zone”. While I was
standing there with my gun in the air I got shot again, right in the foot. I
remember thinking, “Really?!?? You are such a JERK!!!” in the general direction
of the shooter.
Not such a great first game of
paintball, now that I think about it. And that’s just it – before I actually
sat down and thought about my experience paintballing for the first time, I
thought it was the most fun I’d ever had in my whole life. But is getting shot
at close range with plastic balls full of paint really such a great time? At
the time, no, it isn’t. But after all my paintballs were gone and I was turning
in my gun, I thought I had had a great time – I was experiencing “rosy
remembering”, or “rosy retrospection”, as Martin Lindstrom’s book Brandwashed refers to it as. This is
when we recall our past experiences in a better light than they actually
happened. Many companies take advantage of this phenomenon in their
advertising, including CPX Sports.
As we were leaving the paintball
complex, we were handed coupons for their next event, Zombie Attack, and passes
for free admission if we came back within the next two weeks. They want us to
think that our experience was a good one so that we will come back to their
business again (the coupons were a
great incentive). And of course, my roommate and I just couldn’t pass up free
admission for paintballing, especially at a place where we had so much fun
before, so we went again the next weekend. I didn’t think it was as fun as it
was the first time, but it was still pretty fun. Again, they gave us another
pass for free admission good for the next two weeks as we left. I found out
that the free admission pass saves me $18, but I still have to pay for
equipment rental and paintballs (which are not too cheap, since they force you
to buy the ones that they sell in their store). This is a common way businesses
get, and keep, our business. Rosy retrospection can be a pretty dangerous thing
for consumers, and a great marketing technique for businesses.
Rosy retrospection isn’t always a
bad thing in life though. If women remembered childbirth as being as painful as
it really was, then a lot of us probably wouldn’t be here today. Remembrance is
a great and important thing in life, whether we remember things as being better
or worse than they actually were. In the Bible there are a lot of good things
we can be reminded about concerning God and His character. Here are some verses
to think about:
Numbers 14:18a – “The LORD is slow to anger,
abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.”
Deuteronomy 4:31 – “For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or
destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to
them by oath.”
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