About The Book
My Promise To Emily
Calvin Dudley’s My Promise to Emily is a book that explores the psychology of promises. It helps readers understand the concepts discussed here in a much more relatable way. Dudley immerses the readers in a story that sheds light on the importance of keeping a promise and one’s word. The book beautifully captures the essence, helping the readers understand the psychology behind the entire concept.
As the story in My Promise to Emily unfolds, Dudley meets a little girl, Emily, who becomes very special to him in a short span of time. One day, as they are enjoying fishing together, Dudley, out of his heart, gives Emily his word that the next fish he catches, he will give it to her. “Mr. Calvin, you just got started. Yes, I just threw my line in the water. Ok then, we are headed to the park for about thirty minutes. By that time, you will have a few catches. Within the first fifteen minutes, I had two brims and a catfish. By the time she returned, there was a total of eight fish in the bucket. Wow,
I see you're on a roll, Mr. Calvin. Yes, it seems like it's my lucky day, Emily. May I have your next catch? My father would clean it for me. Check this out; today is your lucky day, Emily. I'm so honored to fulfill that request. At that precise moment, something hit my line, and I allowed it to nibble for a few seconds. When the fish made its move to take the bait, that’s when I took control and hooked it firmly. As I yanked it out of the waters, her expression was WOW, that’s a nice-sized catfish, Mr. Calvin. Yes, it is my largest.”
Unfortunately, as the next catch is one of Dudley’s largest, he becomes reluctant and does not give it to her. Surprisingly, Emily understands Dudley’s reluctance and tells him it is okay and he can keep it.
Emily was so excited until she looked into my eyes. And she knew instantly that I wanted to keep my largest catch.”
This very instance in the book highlights a major factor—love and genuineness—as to why the human mind makes promises or gives someone their word. Love is a pure emotion, and the feeling of offering someone a favor out of the heart’s genuineness is common. This is done as an act of love and respect for the other person.
Moving forward, right after Emily asks Dudley to keep the fish, he feels disappointed in himself for not being able to keep his word. This leads him to promise Emily that the next catch will be hers. This takes the readers to explore another element that contributes to one’s act of making a promise—to convince the other person of their credibility.
In this situation, Dudley makes a promise to Emily after he fails to keep his word earlier. This depicts typical human behavior: People tend to convince others of their credibility with a promise after they feel embarrassed about a particular thing they did.
After exploring these two emotional elements, it is essential to take the readers deep into the attachment theory. This theory revolves around the exchange of care, comfort, and pleasure among people.
Love, genuineness, and guilt are three elements that are major outcomes of the attachment theory. People do not tend to make or keep promises to someone they do not know.
Another critical factor that the book discusses is the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment that takes over a person as soon as they are able to deliver on their word and keep their promises. Additionally, it brings guilt, embarrassment, and sadness to one in case they fail to keep their word.
What is important here is the area of discussion, which is limited to one’s personal life. Things are different in the professional world, as promises are made to start new working relationships, such as employers promising growth to their employees, companies promising results to their clients, and so on.
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