“Look I can see why you did what you did. It was a difficult situation and you handled it very well but you did break curfew so unfortunately I’m going to have to give you detention.”
The above is a much easier pill to swallow than the below…
Detention McGrath!
What! Why?!?
You broke curfew.
To save little Timmy’s life!
Doesn’t matter.
But he was going to die otherwise!
Rules are rules.
…
Both result in a punishment but the first interaction contains an acknowledgement.
An understanding of difficulty.
It shows empathy for the situation and recognition of the grey area.
The second interaction lacks humanity.
It’s overly simplistic.
It’s a black and white mindset and I can’t blame McGrath for getting frustrated.
Thomas Duggan 