Slowly We Adjust, But Only If We

Everyone Who Deals With Teens Seems To Agree That The Most Important And Toughest Job Is Staying In Connection And Conversation ... Not Delivering A Lecture But Saying What We Think.

We Criticize Mothers For Closeness. We Criticize Fathers For Distance. How Many Of Us Have Expected Less From Our Fathers And Appreciated What They Gave Us More? How Many Of Us Always Let Them Off The Hook?

We Are Told That People Stay In Love Because Of Chemistry, Or Because They Remain Intrigued With Each Other, Because Of Many Kindnesses, Because Of Luck. But Part Of It Has Got To Be Forgiveness And Gratefulness.

This Packrat Has Learned That What The Next Generation Will Value Most Is Not What We Owned, But The Evidence Of Who We Were And The Tales Of How We Loved. In The End, It's The Family Stories That Are Worth The Storage.

Today, Much Of Journalism And Politics Are In A Kind Of Collusion To Oversimplify And Personalize Issues. No Room For Ambivalence. Plenty Of Room For The Personal Attack.