King of All I Survey
Chapter 140: King Solomon vs. King Tim

Chapter 140: King Solomon vs. King Tim

I walked back to the same apartment building from which I had entered the neighborhood before the embassy visit. I ducked inside and vanished, reappearing in the Welcome Hall of the Super-Secret Planetary Leadership Headquarters Treehouse Fortress.

"OK, Joe, what else is happening today?" I asked.

"Rafael is going to be transported back to Guatemala. There is, in my estimation, a small but significant chance that he may lose his temper and resort to violence if he’s pushed or just has a very bad. Releasing him is actually against your policy of not allowing potentially dangerous criminals back into society."

"That was for serial killers..."

"Technically, he qualifies."

I paused, sobering at the thought. He had killed a lot of people over a long period of time. He had done so without remorse. Did he regret his actions now? Probably not because of the harm he did, I thought. He might regret them for the way Maribel felt about it, but not likely out of his own conscience. "Yeah, maybe... He has to be an exception though, based on Mom’s earlier decision as Maribel. I’m not going to overrule her decisions unless there’s absolutely no choice. If I give someone the authority to make a decision, then I’ll stick by it."

"Acknowledged."

"How did his therapy go? Is he on the path to developing a conscience at least?"

"He made significant progress. I can’t say that any strong sense of compassion is going to stop him from making bad decisions. He does like the feeling of being able to help people, which is encouraging. It plays to his desire for power. I actually used that motivating force for much of the work we did. For example, he realizes now that reacting with violence against those who either get in his way, anger him, or somehow betray him, is a sign of his own weakness, rather than strength. Violence is a disguise for cowardice, the real strength lies in the ability to remain calm and find alternatives to violence."

"That’s good," I agreed as I sat down on the raised chair on the dais of the Welcome Hall. What good is a throne if the king never uses it, right? Anyway, it was comfortable and a good place to sit and think. "He’s all about power, right?"

"Yes, although that. Too stems from his early trauma. He feels that if his parents had been more powerful, they would not have been killed. Subconsciously, he blames their weakness for his loss of them. It has become central to his sense of identity. He fears that he is weak inside and that his weakness will lead to further loss or harm to those he cares about. Those he cared about, however, was a null set until he met Maribel. I’ve been working with him to help him understand that it is his anger and violence that are the real weakness, and that it is this weakness that can cause the most pain for Maribel."

"That makes sense. It’s probably a good thing that we separated Maribel from Mom, though. That could have become pretty awkward."

"Yes. Actually, it was pretty awkward, judging from the behavioral cues I noticed in your father, it was causing him substantial difficulty to see her interactions with Rafael, even if she wasn’t the one in control at the time. He understands that intellectually, but emotionally is caused him much distress. He was torn between wanting to exert dominance over Rafael, ironically, through violence, showing himself and Susan that he was the more powerful of the two. Or, his second, choice, which perhaps shows the greater strength of character, of withdrawing from the relationship and allowing Susan to follow her heart to find her own happiness, even though it was not Susan’s heart, but Maribel’s."

"Yeah, that’s all pretty complicated for me... I mean, it seems like both of those are weak choices."

"Really? Explain."

"Sure, beating him up is weak, it just shows he’s afraid of losing out to him, right?"

"OK, I can accept that simplistic phrasing."

"Yeah, kind of like that," I grinned wryly, "When I’m right and you feel weak, so you use big words or red herring concepts that I’ve haven’t been exposed to because of youth to ’beat me up’ with your vast superiority." I didn’t pause long enough for him to react to that. "Anyway, backing off, when he knows that he loves her, and that she loves him, even if there are other qualities she sees in someone else that she also finds attractive, is also a cowardly thing to do."

"How so?"

"He’s afraid that if he doesn’t ’run away,’ metaphorically speaking, then if he does lose her, it will show that he isn’t good enough. Rather than face that possibility, he makes it seem like it’s not his own failing, but rather his own strong choice to lose. It’s, how do you therapists say it, just another form of ego-gratification."

"OK, that’s pretty insightful for an eight-year-old. You imply that there is a third truly strong choice?"

"Well, duh, obviously. There are a couple of options for a choice that shows real strength. One, understand what he lacks and develop that in himself so he no longer lacks it. But that doesn’t mean beating up the tough guy, it means... showing that true power lies in self-control and decisiveness. Acting like he is in control, maybe, you know like all confident and stuff. Showing her that he is strong because he believes he is strong, or something... Strong people don’t feel weak around other strong people. I’m sure you can say it better. Anyway, or option two, if the things that attract her to the other guy are not... in his character or not qualities he wants to have, then he should play to the strengths he already possesses, those things that made Mom marry him in the first place. Remind her of who he is and why he is right for her. I don’t know, maybe she likes his goofiness or something."

Joe interrupted me, "The way he always presents a positivity that makes her feel confident that things will work out for the better. His sense of humor and his ability to make her smile and laugh, regardless of daily pressures or problems. The way he values her opinions and feelings..."

Now I interrupted him, "yeah, yeah, all that mushy stuff... Anyway, don’t run away from something you want or try to destroy someone who also has strong qualities, just be the best you that you can be and know that that will be enough. In then end, you know, maybe she does choose someone else, but that’s not because of your failing or weakness, it’s just a... "

"A sign that maybe there was some underlying issues that perhaps she kept hidden from you, or even from herself? Issues that would have led to longer term resentments and regrets?"

"Yeah, whatever, something like that. You know when you want ice-cream and candy, but dinner is coming soon, and you know, ice cream and candy are good, but Mom’s meatloaf is pretty good too, and it’s better for you in the long run, and there’s ice cream for desert after the meatloaf, but you know a different ice cream, not the forbidden one... or... Yeah, maybe what you said." Words suck, I thought. I knew what I meant, but I just couldn’t get the ideas from my brain to my mouth in a way that made sense. Math was so much better. It always made the same sense to everybody who saw it.

"Ice cream metaphors aside," Joe said with a quiet voice that seemed to convey appreciation, "I think what you’ve said is very wise, not just for an eight-year-old, but for anyone. Perhaps even wiser coming from a king."

"Speaking of kingly wisdom, Joe. I’ve3 always wondered about that King Solomon story."

"What about it?"

"You know, the two women claim the babu is theirs and King Solomon says ’OK, we’ll chop the baby in half and you each get a fair share or whatever?"

"Yes."

"Well, in the story, they say, the true mother was distraught and willing to give up her claim to save the baby, while the other woman was happy to get half a baby. That makes no sense. I mean, if the other lady wanted the baby, I get that. But there’s no way she wanted half a baby. There’s like no way she’d be like ’Ok, get the axe and give me my half.’ Maybe she sticks by her demand for the whole baby, or plots to steal it from the other woman later, whatever, but half a baby? Ew..."

"Well, it’s a parable. It’s designed to illustrate a point rather than make factual sense. The point is that a real mother’s love is the strongest love and cannot be faked."

"Even that’s not right," I protested, "I mean, adopted parents love their adopted babies. And some real parents are pretty bad to their real kids... I mean, it seems like the real moral of the story is that kings tend to make snap decisions based on faulty assumptions when they’re bored or tired of listening to people complain. Just because a regular person with a cooler head steps in and saves the day, doesn’t make him any wiser. I’m just saying.

Joe chuckled, "Maybe so, King Tim. Maybe so. But, back to the point, if Rafael is about to go off the rails, should I intervene?"

I had to think about that for a second, "Joe, if we think, or if Maribel thinks he should be President of Guatemala, I mean, if we have to jump in a stop him from hurting people... Either we’re going to trust his judgement or we’re not," I paused again to reconsider and changed my mind back and forth a couple times. "Still, trust has to be earned. Keep an eye on him, if it looks like something’s going to trigger bad behavior, let me know so I can monitor it and make an instant decision. We have a drone on him all the time anyway, right. Just make sure it’s one that has lasers... Just in case. Do you think Maribel would give up her half to save him?"

"Yes, without a doubt."

"What did Mom and her see in him... Oh!" I had a sudden realization. "It’s why she chose him to be the next President, too. They see him as a protector. Maybe they’re right, after all. We have to refocus him, Joe. He’s been using his strength to protect himself... or his little kid self from the powerlessness he felt when the soldiers came and destroyed his village. We need him to think of Guatemala as his little kid self... and maybe think of himself as becoming the soldiers and being the cause of the harm. He needs to protect the people from himself and others like him."

"That’s an interesting perspective," Joe mused, "You ’d like to encourage him to realize that he is, at heart, a bad person, and he needs to constantly be at war with himself to keep that bad from leaking out... That’s not exactly standard therapeutic practice."

"Maybe. But think of it like this: every time he acts out violently, the soldiers win because they have made him into one of them. Every time he resists that, he gets one step closer to winning, and the ultimate win is when he no longer feels the urge to react that way."

"That’s better..."

"Yeah," I continued, "His natural instinct is to fight. This way, he ’fights’ his most hated enemies, the soldiers from his past, by being calm and peaceful. The harder he fights, the calmer and more peaceful he acts. Eventually he realizes that being calm in the face of aggression is the greater strength."

"Perhaps, Rafael’s therapist should send a note to Maribel asking her to encourage such thoughts..." Joe suggested.

"I’m thinking that when Rafael meets Maribel’s father, he sets a good example of how a strong leader acts, then uses his words to reinforce it to both Maribel and Rafael," I countered.

"Well," Joe replied, "I suppose there’s no harm in someone setting a good example and offering the wisdom of his advanced years, even if he got that wisdom from an eight-year-old."