Socratic Method

“Hey, you know you have two copies of this movie?” says a young child, perhaps six or seven, one day, pointing to Fernando's new release shelf as his mother browses elsewhere.

“Hmm?” answers Fernando. Then he sees the film in question. “Yeah, that's because I need to have more than one copy of The Dilemma here.”

“Why?”

“Well, because I need more than one copy of it so that I have some here so people can rent it if they want to.”

“Why would they want to?”

Fernando chuckles. “Some people like movies like that.”

“But why?”

“Well, it's like...like flavors of ice cream. Some people like vanilla, others like chocolate. So you need to have different flavors of movies for people to watch, too.”

“But you can't eat a movie!”

“'If you can cut it with a knife, you can eat it,'” Fernando quotes to the child, as one of his college acquaintances had coined this saying.

“But I don't have a knife.”

The mother completes her browsing at this point and approaches the counter, calling the child to her. As Fernando completes the transaction, she catches a glance of Fernando's KEEP YOUR CHILDREN UNDER CONTROL sign. “Oh, jeez, I'm sorry,” she blurts.

“For what?” Then Fernando notices her looking up at the sign and laughs. “The only way that sign would have been invoked would be if your son had actually started cutting up movies and cases in order to consume them.”

The woman smiles, pays, and leaves.