• One of the great joys of getting older, and there is at least one joy involved in this grueling process, is discovering that you were right all the time. I try not to boast here because, well, that's just the kind of person I am. And, I'm not going to make a list of all of the things I was "right" about. No sense in boasting, but I just can't resist one.
• Some of these things centered on my relationship with my mother. One advantage a mother has over her children is that sense of authority and being right all the time. Looking back, I can see that she was not right all the time.
• As a young person, my mother told me things I have since learned not to be true. For example:
• It takes more than clean underwear to survive an accident.
• The boogieman under my bed does not exist... any more.
• None of my friends wants to jump off a bridge.
• I will grow up even if I don't clean up my plate.
• And, it's almost impossible to behave yourself and have a good time simultaneously.
• My mother, like other mothers, was not a bad mother. She just had bad information, much of which she got from her mother. I'm not sure where grandmother got her information, but it too was wrong. And, when you have bad information, there is nothing more you can do but inflict it upon your children. And my mother inflicted away at us children.

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