Note Isabel is named last.
Statement Analysis cannot be done by the dishonest. Those who are not truthful cannot ask themselves what they might say in a given situation.
Statement Analysis can not be those who abuse children.
In speaking to parents, no one is ever a child abuser. None. Even if found "substantiated" or even found guilty and imprisoned for child abuse, I have never met a single person, male or female, willing to say "I am a child abuser."
A child abuser cannot do statement analysis.
What made Solomon's display of wisdom so fitting was human nature. He had already heard the arguments of the two women in dispute of custody. He even repeated back their arguments to show that the order in which someone speaks is critical, but when this did not register with his audience, he called for a sword to be brought in, and the baby to be cut in half, with each mother getting 50%.
He knew that the maternal instinct of the mother, whom he had already heard and seen, would win the day.
But what of the other mother?
"Go ahead. Fine with me. We each get half a dead baby. "
She was willing, in her own pain and grief, to inflict the pain of loss upon her former friend.
They could never be friends again after that shocking statement.
But what do you make of her character? What do you make of the cold-hearted murderer, willing to inflict not only the death of a child upon a caring mother (her instincts prove she cared) but the violent death of the child? She was vicious and full of envy, and wanted her 'friend' to feel life's worse pain.
Great parents don't call themselves "great."
I once was at Sbarro at the mall, having pizza with Heather when I saw a young father, perhaps no older than 20 or 21, struggling with his 2 year old.
His dress and appearance did nothing to instill confidence, nor would he impress at a job interview dressed as he was, but I could not take my eyes off of the way he handled his 2 year old daughter. She was being...well, she was being 2 years old, and she had pizza, what else could possibly go wrong? Everything.
But he reacted calmly, while still setting boundaries, and I was touched by his gentle demeanor. It reminded me of the great Robert E. Lee who's "Life and Letters" guided me in parenting, who taught that closeness precludes the need for sternness. This young man was tender, attentive, while still not allowing the 2 year old to 'run the show' as is so often the case.
I could not help myself.
I got up and walked over to him, and immediately saw the panic in his face, as he must have assumed I was going to say something critical, especially dressed as I was, perhaps posing a figure of authority to him.
"You're doing a wonderful job with her, Dad", I said to him in a low and private voice.
He smiled with a huge smile, and I thought he would cry from happiness of being called "Dad" and said, "Thank you! I love her and am really trying!" I could only imagine, being young, that he was probably being told by everyone around him how to do this, and how to do that. Sometimes the best advice is no advice, and just a few encouraging words....read more