Thanksgiving 2011

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. The reasons vary. For one, most people seem to have something within themselves that values gratitude, be they religious or not. In other words, compared to Christmas, for example, Thanksgiving is a notably less sectarian holiday....

Child Sexual Abuse

I was on the phone the other day with my buddy, a Penn State alum. He is one of our nation’s “greatest generation,” having had his college career interrupted by his service in World War II. Our conversation could just as well have been about the...

Doing It For Whom?

Someone has said that “our morality is who we are in the dark, when no one else is watching, when nobody knows, or perhaps even cares.” In this respect, my buddy, an alcoholic in recovery for many years–he once shared a revealing experience with me....

Relationship Rule #1

The more we’re trying to change anyone, the more they will be resisting us. Relationships are what family therapists call “emotional systems.” The most important characteristic of which is how more or less reactive the persons involved are to one...