This morning I was on the phone with a colleague. As we were winding down our conversation I mentioned that I had just returned from my annual family reunion. “Oh,” he said, “you know what my family calls those annual get-togethers? Dysfunction Junction.” We had a laugh. Families and their awkward attempts at reunion are […]
Family
The Disobedient Guide Dog
First you must learn to obey. Good. Then, it is just as important to learn to disobey. We teach children to obey their parents and all the other authority figures in their lives. This is critical, not just for their moral development, but for their basic safety and well being. When I was a young […]
Second Marriage (Same People)
Today is my 35th wedding anniversary. Pam and I were married June 3rd 1978 in Panama City, Florida. After 35 years, my marriage is blessedly the most important thing in my life. But it wasn’t always. We all marry a fantasy, an idealized image of the perfect husband or wife. A few months or years […]
Giving Birth in Hospice
Pam spent last night sleeping in a chair beside her father’s hospital bed. He is dying. “It is like sitting with someone who is giving birth,” Pam said. “It’s hard work. It can be frightening—you need strength and courage to undergo this suffering, this ordeal, to bring a life to birth. And,” she said, “it’s […]
A Good and Perfect Gift
What happens to you when, a few minutes after delivering your baby, you are told there is something wrong? Yesterday I heard Amy Julia Becker speak. She had lived that scenario. Her husband, who had spoken with the doctor, came back into her hospital room, his eyes glazed with tears. “They say our baby may […]
The Last Family Fight
We just don’t argue anymore. I spent the weekend with my six brothers and sisters—along with all our husbands and wives, except for my brother-in-law Larry in Kuwait. We were in Knoxville for a late celebration of my father’s 94th birthday. And we didn’t argue or fight. Which is saying something in this family. Twenty […]