DEFENSES DOWN
We have a simple relationship, you and I, because we’ve probably never met. That should be a relief. The fact that we’re not family makes our relationship void of history. I’m not going to preach to you, check out your Facebook page; text; email, or call your friends.
Our relationship will exist only on these pages. If you’re doing well, it’s wonderful. I won’t embarrass you by calling relatives to brag about you. What I will do is simply share some of my observations and perspectives on life, hoping they might ignite a spark of mutual understanding between us.
If we met and were standing side by side looking into the distance, our views would be slightly different. You might see things that I don’t see. We can tell each other about our view. I find considering different perspectives illuminating, whether it’s from a person, book, play, or movie. Learning enhances living.
BIG things happen in each of our lives, birth, love, sickness, successes, accidents, and death. But most of our lives are formed by collections of small seemingly inconsequential thoughts and
lifetime of observing small things and I’ll share some of my views. If you don’t agree with me it’s fine. Yell at the book, write in the margins, send me an email.
There will be no guilt trips from me. I will never say, “I told you so.” You don’t have to call me or tell me you love me. Besides, we both know that if I WAS your mother, you would have tuned me out by now.
Privacy is important to me, so I initially didn’t intend to include any of my personal experiences in the book. Then I realized that was a cop-out. How would you know how I arrived at my conclusions if I didn’t share how.? I’ll make them few and far between and will not rhapsodize about the “good old days.”
C.S. Lewis said, “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
We need to hatch to be able to fly, so let’s put a crack in our shells and try our wings. I’ll try to be brief. Heaven knows we’re all busy. So, listen to me!
