The Broken Sword

Photo by Angelrays.

Orlando borrowed a toy knight from his cousin Ralphie and then broke its sword. The blade snapped off the handle.

We decided to buy a replacement (and not to leave the knight on the floor of the kitchen where it apparently suffered a terrible accident between bedtime and morning that no one is aware of perpetuating).

Anyway, today we went to the toy store and found the same knight, only in black instead of silver.

I asked my sister-in-law if she thought he would mind one in black rather than silver or should I take the sword out and put it in the silver one, blah-de-blah, and do you believe how much time we’re talking about toy knights?

“Here, why don’t you ask Ralphie?”

I hear Ralphie’s voice on the phone, which sounds even more cute and wonderful than it does in real life. “Hi, Auntie Stacy.”

“Hi, Ralphie. Remember how we broke your knight? Well, we got you a new one that’s black. Would you rather have the black knight or a silver one?”

“Both!”

I laughed because of course that was the perfect thing to do!


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I also laughed because just the night before I had read a Daily Groove about this very tendency of kids to not fall into either-or thinking. I wasn't thinking of it at the time I talked to Ralphie — I didn't even realize how I was stuck in either-or thinking — until wonderful Ralphie broke the spell.

:: Creative Democracy, by Scott Noelle ::

A conversation with my daughter when she was five:

"What's that sign, Daddy?"

"That's a political sign for the upcoming election."

"What's an election?"

I did my best to convey the abstraction of democracy to a 5-year-old. "Do you know what voting is?"

"No."

"Okay... Pretend we're deciding what to make for dinner, and we're choosing between pizza and spaghetti. Each of us gets to vote for which one we want... Which one would *you* vote for?"

"I want pizza AND spaghetti!"

Suddenly *I* was the student, and the lesson was clear: either/or, win/lose thinking is not something our kids are born with. It's learned. Even if we don't actively teach it to them, we teach it passively whenever we take scarcity and competition for granted.

Today, pay close attention to your decision-making processes -- your private "elections." Are they based on scarcity and competition, or abundance and creativity?

Are you willing to concede your contentious elections and surrender to the creative process?

http://dailygroove.net/creative-democracy

Feel free to share this daily groove with your friends! (Please include this paragraph and everything above.) Copyright (c) 2008 by Scott Noelle