6 - Wishing for Death or Fighting for Life?

Summary

Were I to doubt the legitimacy of my argumentation in this book, our son (who was four years old at the time) proved me right a while back. We were driving home from a visit with some friends, and I asked him if he wanted some apple slices. He said no, and I did something mothers of four-year-olds should never do: I finished them myself. Three minutes later, he was screaming, tears streaming down his face, “If I do not get apple slices now, I will die!”—I swear I had never discussed the details of this book with him! Of course, I did not for a minute expect him to die from a lack of apple slices; I also do not think he would have wanted to die if he did not get apple slices. If I had had more apples, though, it would have been a very efficient way for him to get them; my son had stumbled upon a very powerful rhetorical strategy.