Not Anymore Dad

After reading chapters one and two of Thank You for Arguing I realized how much rhetoric is in my life and how much I can learn from this book to implement it better. Jay Heinricks begins his first chapter by narrating a time where he argued with his son, and used rhetoric to win the argument without his son actually knowing. After I read this part I couldn’t stop thinking how my father does this to me every time.

My father is one of the most forgetful people I know, or at least he pretends to be. Every time he is going for work he forgets his car keys and its so irritating because he always asks me to go to the parking lot and give them to him. When I am getting ready for school, and my Dad shuts the door its only a matter of seconds to receive a phone call instructing me to go to his closet, open the drawer and take his car keys. It doesn’t only frustrate me that he does this almost everyday, but also that he keeps on promising that he wont do it again.  He is very  

When my cell phone rings around 6:10 I always do the same thing. I speak with an irritated voice to my Dad and he manipulates the situation so that I seem as if I were the bad guy. He uses the future tense, which as Aristotle says is what guarantees peace. He always says “I’m sorry honey, it wont happen again I promise, its just that I have a lot of things on my mind”. This makes me feel sorry for him, so I leave my frustration aside and give him his keys with a smile. But next time it won’t be the same. I’m not sure how it is that I will respond, but Ill keep on reading this book so I know how to win the argument. I’m tired of starting my day by going to the parking lot.