Is Being Right Enough?

How often have you made a choice, in which you knew that you were right, yet it turned out wrong? If we, as adults and parents, can do this, what can we expect from our children, especially our teens? And therefore we can ask the question: is being right enough?

I still can’t get over the fact that human brains don’t fully develop until their early twenties.  I learned this from a lecture by Dr. Bruce Powell, dean of a local private school, and expert on raising teenagers. So, for teens, their judgments, empathy, and other functions, like knowing when to keep their mouths shut, just aren’t present.  Yet, we expect them to often behave as if they were fully adult.

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Envy – One of the Seven Deadly Sins (“Just A Guy”)

I recently visited my best friend, who moved from L.A., to a small town in the Northwest.  He built a home, from scratch, supervising every detail, and with his wife, they created their dream home.  I found myself feeling a tad of envy, as he took me on the tour of the house, pointing out all the beautiful details.

As we’ve been renting for several years, the pride of ownership is just not part of our lives and our belief is that the practical choice is to stay in rent for the near future.  Our choice, certainly.  But, as I reflected on my own bout of envy, I thought about my boys and how often they’re comparing themselves to their peers. read more

Just A Guy, Oscar, Living With Felix

The other night we had some friends over and my conservation side came out when I began cutting our large napkins in half.  We were having dessert, and I thought the napkins were too big and it was a waste.  My wife was appalled and demanded I stop immediately.  Our friends thought it quite amusing.

It represented another time when our Oscar and Felix differences came out (referring to Oscar the slob and Felix the neatnik in Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” though we’re not near as extreme as those two).  I’m mostly Oscar, the messy one, but also the one that is maybe overly budget conscious.  My wife is Felix, the neat one, who may be a bit anal about it in my view (in hers, she’s already let go of most of her sense-of-order and cleanliness needs by living with 3 boys and 3 dogs–I’m considered one of the boys). read more