The Taliban Can Wait

(I’m an aide at an assisted living facility and am scheduled to help out with life enrichment activities. I am in the middle of doing group exercise when someone comes in saying that the guy across the hall needs help and that he is yelling for somebody.)

Resident: “Help! Help! The Taliban are on their way, and I need you to help me defeat them immediately!”

Me: “No, no, [Resident]. There are no Taliban coming for us right now. Do you want to come exercise with us?”

(The resident will not stop insisting that the Taliban are here and that we are in imminent danger. He keeps begging for my help to defeat them.)

Me: “Can it wait fifteen minutes, so we can finish exercising?”

Resident: “Oh, sure. Go ahead.”