DIPLOMACY

By Henry Close

1.       AURORA

       My totally charming and delightful granddaughter was once known for her dramatic snits, some of which were of epic proportions.  Once, when my wife and I were visiting, she was in the midst of an exceptional performance: cringing under a table, clutching her  blanket, sobbing, with periodic outbursts of “NO!” or “GO AWAY!”  All efforts by her parents were equally futile.

      After her parents had left for an appointment, I  decided to try my hand.   I wanted  to engage her in a way that did not demand a response.  Standing in the doorway to the living room where her older brothers were playing, I told a story loudly enough for Aurora to hear.

     “Once upon a time, two musicians were hiking in the meadows of upper New York state.   Suddenly they heard a beautiful mellow sound in the distance.  It sounded like an animal roaring, but the roar was rich,  melodic and lovely, “RO . . . A . . . A . . . A . . . AR” 

       “As the two hikers stepped into a clearing, they saw it!  A stunning white dinosaur, holding its head high and  filling the air with music.  It nodded slowly as the two men approached.  One of them spoke very quietly.  “You know, you have a beautiful voice.  In fact, I think it is the most lovely roar I have ever heard, even from animals that have had singing lessons.  I think you could have a career as an opera singer, but there is one problem.  When you sing opera, you can’t sing just one sound, like “ROAR”.  An opera singer also has to sing “AH” sometimes.”

     The dinosaur nodded its head and gave it a try: “A A AH    A A AH !”

     The musicians nodded their heads, “Very good.  Now try it again.”

     “AH . . .ROAR . . AH!   “AH . . . ROAR . . . AH!!”  (I was singing fortissimo by this time.)

     I glanced down, and  there was Aurora at my side, looking up at me with a  wistful smile.  I continued nonchalantly.  “I never did learn the dinosaur’s name, but I know she sang a couple of times at the opera house.  When she was taking her bows, someone in the audience threw her a bouquet of flowers.  Dinosaur caught the flowers in her mouth and ate them.”

 II.  TOMMY

          As my friend Lettie Mohamed walked into a rest room by the expressway, she noticed a young boy in the corner, flailing his arms as his mother tried to corral him.  “Come on, Tommy, we’ve got to go!  We’re late already.”

     Tommy showed no interest in going anywhere.

     Lettie sized up the situation immediately.  “Tommy just wants to stay in here where all the pretty ladies are!”

     Tommy glared at her.

     “If he stays in here long enough, we can all give him a kiss!”

     With that, Tommy grabbed his mother’s arm.  As she was being pulled out the door, she lamented, “He won’t even let me kiss him!”

      There are at least three principles implicit in these interventions:

(1) Nobody loses face when a power struggle is defused rather than crushed;

(2)  Cooperation is better than obedience, and there are many ways to enlist it; 

(3) If you don’t mind making a fool of yourself, you can have a lot of fun in life!