MY MOTHER SAID she thought I’d already made up my mind, then walked away. “Hey,” I said, “this is just one option out of many.” But something so dramatically different from going to school or working did have my full attention. Important changes were happening and I felt caught up in the flow. A Catholic was running for President. Recently, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper had died […]
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Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson | What Boys Need
WHAT BOYS NEED, FIRST AND FOREMOST, is to be seen through a different lens than tradition prescribes. Individually, and as a culture, we must discard the distorted view of boys that ignores or denies their capacity for feelings, the view that colors even boys’ perceptions of themselves as above or outside a life of emotions. We must recognize the harm in asking “too much and not enough” of them—in demanding […]
Michael Gurian | Jack and the Beanstalk
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a mother and a son named Jack. Jack was becoming older and his mother thought, “Well, it’s time to give him a little more responsibility. Our cow is getting old and no longer gives milk. I’ll ask Jack to take the cow to the market and sell her.” Jack and his mother were poor people, so this was a big responsibility. If Jack failed, […]
Brian J. Doyle | We Did
DID WE PUNCH AND HAMMER AND JAB EACH OTHER as children thrashing and rambling a large family in a small house filled with brothers and one older sister with sharp bony fists and no reluctance to use them? We did. Did we use implements like long whippy maple branches and mom’s bamboo garden poles and dad’s old sagging tennis rackets and redolent pieces of oozy lumber stolen from the new […]
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