The Decisive Element
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture, or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and if a person humanized or dehumanized.
If I treat people as they are, I make them worse.
If I treat people, as they ought to be, I help them become what they are capable of becoming.
-Goethe
