My daughter constantly surprises me

My (almost ten year old) daughter, "A", has been having some trouble with one of her friends at school. In fact, this happens pretty much every year. They start and end the year the best of friends, but somewhere in the middle they both drive each other crazy. We talked some about that, and although A was unhappy, I could tell she was thinking deeply about what to do.

Later, she came downstairs from her room and said, "Dad, I've been thinking about the problem with my friend, and I was thinking that perhaps trying diplomacy would be a good idea."

I was, to say the least, surprised by this appeal to diplomacy. I don't know if I looked shocked or not, but she went on to say, "The way diplomacy works is that I would go to her and tell her what I have done wrong, and then tell her what I feel she has done wrong. Then we would try to come to a conclusion that would make both of us happy."

I asked her if she would like to try diplomacy and she said yes. I wanted to ask her if she would teach a seminar on diplomacy for me and some of my adult friends.

I also asked where she learned about diplomacy, and she said from the book Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. So, thank you, Ms. Hale.

She also said that she had checked the school library and couldn't find any more books about diplomacy, a topic she finds very interesting.

I think I just met the future U.S. Diplomat to Chile.