My dad was an amazing listener. He had that rare combination of intuitiveness, seemingly non-judgementalness, and a kind and gentle nature. He was able to wrestle confessions of misdeeds out of his children by barely uttering a word.
His philosophy was if you give a guy enough rope sooner or later he'll hang himself.
As a parent I see how often this is true. What should have been a simple yes or no answer turns into a very long tale that obviously took some time to conjure up. Truth usually isn't very complicated. Talk, talk, talk and before you know it you've got yourself tangled in a web of deceit.
That's when Dad would kick the chair (figuratively).
I'm not nearly the good listener my dad was (I'm more like my mom). But sometimes I do get it right.
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