My daughter had a smashed up plastic Easter egg in her jacket pocket when I picked her up. It belonged to one of her friends in Kindergarten and had inadvertently been broken by one of the boys. She carried her jacket carefully so as not to lose any of the tiny pieces.
“I promised I’d fix it with our tape,” she told me.
“Did you break it?”
“No, but I promised her I’d fix it. And we have lots of tape.” True that. We don’t have a lot of anything, but we always have tape.
When we got home, I realized that the little plastic Easter egg was in worse shape than I had thought. One half was okay, but the other half was broken, actually smashed into various tiny shards.
“Honey, I don’t think you’ll be able to fix that with tape. There are a lot of pieces,” I told her.
“Yes, I can. I promised and when you make a promise you have to keep it.”
True that. Again. I thought. But what if you don’t have any idea what you’re promising when you make the promise?
If there were any time that it would be completely fair and square to renig on a promise, this would be it. (In my opinion, anyway.)
She grabbed the roll of masking tape and disappeared into her room. Apparently well aware of the need for silence and concentration in repairing the smashed up egg.
When she emerged a couple hours later, she was holding a completely wrinkled and tape covered Easter egg, which by all accounts was fixed. If you didn’t know it, you’d never guess there were a billion tiny pieces underneath.
“See,” she said with her hand out. “I fixed it.” And she gently laid the egg into a small pocket of her backpack.
Yes, you did, I thought to myself. You certainly didn’t promise it would be pretty.
Takeaway:
1. “If you make a promise you have to keep it.” Obviously if you don’t believe you can, you shouldn’t promise in the first place.
2. Believing breeds determination.
3. Determination and tape can fix most anything.
What her friend will think of the taped up chunk that was once a broken plastic egg, I’m not sure.
I hope she likes it though.
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4 Responses to Promises and Determination by Masking Tape
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That is a wonderful story, and something that has been registering with me a lot over the last couple of years. I am growing a lot of respect for people who come through and do it on time. I’ve had a lot of experience with friends flaking out, or getting around to things long after they said they would, and even after it’s still relevant. I too do this. Is it worse these days than it used to be 10 years ago? thanks for the reminder.
I searched for something completely different, but found your website! And have to say thanks.
I never use the word “promise” unless I’m sure I can deliver… lesson learned from a dad who was quick to promise.
I think as adults we all do this, as if aging causes us to forget the importance of a promise. My daughter firmly believes in the pinky swear, and has taught me to believe in it as well. Thanks for reading…