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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN |
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SETTING LIMITS
The patient grandmother and her energetic grandchild had spent a considerable amount of time in the children’s section of the library. They had read several books together. They had played with the stuffed animals and puppets. They had even spent some time on the computer together. Finally, the grandmother announced that it was time to leave and that the child must now choose three videos for them to check out. The child immediately pulled four DVDs from the shelves and handed them to Grandma. With no emotional charge to her voice, the grandmother said, "How many videos did I say you could check out?" The child replied, "Three." "How many do you have here?" asked Grandma. The child, pointing to each DVD in turn, counted, "One, two, three, four." "So which three do you want to check out?" the grandmother queried. "I want to see them all," The child insisted. "Yes, dear," Grandma answered, "but how many did I say you could check out?" The child replied with the correct limit. The grandmother again asked how many the child had selected. The child counted each one again. Then Grandma again asked which three the child wanted to check out. I watched with great interested as the exchange took place two more times without Grandma losing her patience or the child throwing a tantrum. Finally the child selected three of the four videos, the grandmother put the fourth one back on the shelf, and the two of them merrily marched off to the check-out counter. Given our current economic situation, I wonder how things might be different if people had received that grandma’s calm, broken record, response when they wanted to purchase items they could not afford or hope to ever pay off. Where were the patient, wise, grandmotherly voices when greedy lenders and sales agents were encouraging so many to exceed what should have been their limit?
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
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