Family Ties

I've read the word "estranged" in gossip magazines, tabloids and pretentious novels.  It was usually referring to a relationship with a loved one that was terminating, but not completely severed.  Celebrities who become angry with parents who exploit them or persons whose spouses have cheated are often involved in these estranged relationships. I never understood it, though.  I could not personally fathom how someone could actually stop having contact with a family member.  It isn't that I am naive or that my family members are perfect.  It's just that I have always thought that family ties, particularly those with parents, children or siblings, were indestructible.

However, I now have an estranged relationship of my own.  My sister, with whom I have a long history of rivalry, has decided to cut ties with the rest of the siblings.  In some ways, this was inevitable, and does not come as a big surprise.  In other ways, I am dumbfounded by it.  You don't realize how much you might think about a person day to day until you are suddenly "banned" from thinking of that person.

The difficulty with estrangement for me is that it is such a stage of limbo.  It is somewhat like relationship purgatory in which one is stuck.  You cannot draw total closure, because the person still exists and some ties are still there.  You may still be around them a certain family functions or other family members who are unaware of the issues may mention them to you.  The person is still around, but you are just blocked from accessing them.  It's a challenging position because there is always that possibility that the estranged person will change his or her mind and want to reconcile.  You don't want to allow yourself to completely forget her or villify him, because you hold onto that tiny sliver of possibility. You check your email to see if maybe, just maybe, she has sent a message of apology.  You listen to your voicemail messages or the numbers on the missed calls list because there is a chance that he called to make amends.  In an estranged relationship, you just never quite give up hope.

However, is it healthy to walk around with that hope?  Do repeated disappointments damage the psyche more than complete termination of the relationship?  Is it easier to grieve a loss from death, which is permanent and final, than it is to grieve the loss of the bond when its potential still exists?  Do we attempt to move on with life and remove the idea of any potential for reconciliation, convincing ourselves that the person, and not just the relationship, is dead?

We have books telling us how to find relationships, how to improve them, how to solidify them, and in the case of marriage, many books exist describing how to end them.  Where are the guides to coping with an estranged sibling?  Particularly when you have no control over the situation and a family member has completely severed ties, one can feel very powerless.  How do we empower ourselves and take back control?  When the other person cuts ties, they are in control and can determine when to return to your life. What if you don't really want a return of the relationship, but you just want to eliminate the ambiguity of it all?  

Estrangement is really an odd relationship phenomena that I had never really contemplated until now.  In an ironic twist, the relationship with my sister is more intense now that we are estranged than it was previously.  More thought and consideration is given to her now than at an other point in time.  Maybe that's what she really wanted to have happen.

Is Knowledge Becoming Extinct?

My 6year old son was expressing his desire for another snow day and stating that he doesn't like going to school. When my husband explained that he needed to go so he could keep getting smarter, his reply was,"I don't know why people want to be smarter when you can just ask other people stuff." I was mortified. I'm a college professor, and helping others to gain knowledge is what I do. How could he not want to learn?

His comment stayed with me for several days as I kept pondering its meaning. This morning I was struck by the realization that he is correct. His primitive description actually is quite accurate. When there is something I want to know, I no longer have to read a book on the subject or take a class. All I have to do is Google it. Who was the 14th President? I can Google it. What's the capital of Nebraska? I'll Google it. Am I spelling this word correctly? It doesn't matter because Spellcheck will fix it.

Has American society reached the point where we no longer need to know things? Can everything just be stored in short term memory while in use, and then wiped clean like a now obsolete chalkboard? What I find more disturbing is that we may not have the intellectual capabilities to analyze the information technology provides. If we don't have the fundamentals of a broad knowledge base, will we have the critical thinking skills required in order to be discriminate in using the data provided online? If my son asked me what time it is, I could tell him any time I desired, and he would not know otherwise. Are we as foolish and naive in our use of "facts" given online? Do we believe it because it's published on the computer?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

My hubby has been out of town working for most of January, but he finally comes home tomorrow and I am so excited!  One of the men who works for him was commenting that his wife was not happy that he was gone so much.  My husband agreed that the time apart can be hard on a marriage.  When he told me this, I told him that I actually felt that this has been one of the best things that has happened in our marriage in quite some time.  He happily concurred that it gave us time to reflect on how much we mean to one another.  Prior to his departure, we had been fussing and fighting quite a bit.  Two kids, two careers, and numerous other obligations had left us with very little time for one another.  While he was gone, though, we talked.  We actually talked.  Each night, after the kids went to bed, he would call and we would discuss the events of the day.  That never happened when we were in the same house!  We could be right next to one another in bed, but he would be glued to the television, and I would have my nose in a book or my iPad. 

Our evening phone calls reminded me of when we were dating.  Back then, I also eagerly anticipated the weekend or whenever our next date was.  I would plan an outfit carefully and make sure I looked my best.  At what point did I stop doing that?  Was it at about the same time that he stopped opening the car door for me or holding my hand when we walked?  Was that before or after we both gained twenty pounds, stopped closing the bathroom door and belched in front of each other?  Sometimes, couples can get too comfortable with each other.  When that happens, it seems that the romance disappears.  The high heels become house slippers and the skinny jeans become baggy sweats.

As I eagerly anticipate my husband's return tomorrow, I'm feeling that old excitement.  There are butterflies in my stomach, and I am contemplating what to wear.  I think I need to pull out the skinny jeans and heels.

First Look

Here we go. The first glimpse the rest of the world gets into the inner workings of my mind. Why would anyone care what's going on in there? Who knows! I guess this blog will tell me the answer to that one. I like to think that others might find some of my random musings thought provoking, funny or helpful - but don't we all want to think that? My BFF Sarah once told me that she was the opposite of an anorexic because when she looks in the mirror, she mistakenly sees herself as a skinny person even when significantly overweight.

That made me think, do we all have these distorted self-perceptions? Sometimes they are incorrectly negative (we believe we are stupid, lazy, fat, inadequate), but at times our mind thinks that we are much better than we actually are. Our jokes are the funniest, our ass the cutest, our ideas the most brilliant. There are thousands, if not millions, of books regarding improving our self-esteem, as if to say we don't have enough confidence in ourselves. However, if you look at how many people have blogs, post themselves on YouTube and join the cast of a reality TV show, maybe low self-esteem isn't our problem. Maybe the real problem is with our capacity for insight and self-awareness. However, the nature of that issue is such that those who suffer from that "condition" will never know!