Broken Promises

As adults we become desensitized to the ideal of a promise, we use the term flippantly at times without any real consideration to the meaning. 

Children on the other hand understand a promise in its most absolute sense.

How did we lose respect for the promise?  Was it all of the broken promises that we encountered throughout our childhood?  Think of the heartbreak in a child’s eyes when they remind a trusted grown up of a promise made and forgotten or simply disregarded.

This is a typical conversation between a trusted grown up, we’ll call “dad” and his four year old son “Little Johnny” 

L.J.:        Dad, dad tomorrow’s boy’s day and ice cream day, remember?

Dad:       Ooohh hey bud, I’m not going to be able to take you for ice cream tomorrow afternoon something came up at work and I won’t be able to get off early after all.

L.J.:        But you promised that we would have boy’s day and ice cream.

Dad:       Yeah I know bud, but this meeting is really important and my boss needs me to be there, I just can’t get out of it.  But I’ll tell you what I’ll make it up to you, we’ll have boy’s day the next day how about that?

L.J.:        Okaay dad.

L.J.:        (Walks off disappointed and let down, but tries to put on a big boy face and understand.) 

What will happen the day after tomorrow?  Will dad take L.J. for ice cream or will he be detained at work again?  I don’t know and neither does L.J.  Whether or not dad keeps his second promise, L.J. has already been primed that promises don’t mean much, so the next time someone breaks a promise he figures, he understands; promises are empty words, they don’t mean much.  In time L.J. starts making promises he doesn’t necessarily plan to keep because that’s what you do, right?

But what about politicians?  What about our trusted leaders?  When they make us promises should we expect them to honor their promises or do we just take for granted that they either willingly or inadvertently break them sometimes? 

We have come to accept and in fact expect broken promises from our politicians, yet their promises are largely the single most important factor in our support of them. 

So last week when the President said “then we would have broken an even more important promise” I was disturbed.  Regardless of the context, the statement implies that a promise was broken in order to fulfill, what has been determined to be “an even more important promise.”  I have waited and waited for the media to bring up this sentence, but they haven’t.  When we support our politicians based on promises they make to us is there fine print?  Do we give them free reign to determine what promises are more important than others and thereby give them the freedom to pick and choose which promises they deem worthy to keep? 

Does dad get to say you know Little Johnny that ice cream promise isn’t as big as my promise to make sure you don’t get any cavities, so we’re not going to have ice cream, that way I can keep my promise that you won’t develop dental health issues?  At that point should L.J. say oh thanks dad, you’re right that is a more important promise, we won’t worry about that whole ice cream thing anymore.

I don’t think so.