Prologue

Okay, let's get this straight from the start. I have great kids. Alright, so they're not really kids. They're in their mid 30's as I write this, with wives and kids and homes and established and exciting careers of their own. 

But kidishness is relative, and as they will always be younger than I, 24 and 27 years younger to be exact, even when I am 82 and they are 53 and 55 they will still be "the kids".  Though we try to be respectful and refer to them as men in their presence, we both call them the kids when no one is around. Ask my husband, he will agree. Well, to tell you the truth he may stay silent about it. 

This book has been rattling around in my head for years, and if I don't get it out and onto paper, it will drive me crazy. Well, crazier. (Altho my husband might assert that it is a little too late for that.)  I think any mother will tell you, no matter how well her kids turned out, (as in my case. I'll keep reiterating that, Josh and Matt) there is always something you would have done better. Well, maybe a lot of somethings. Like teaching your oldest not to put the youngest in the dryer and turn it on. See what I mean? There is always something you would have, in hindsight, taught them, if only you could have conceived of their doing such a cockamamie thing!

Somehow things always look different when looking at them from 30 years later. They take on a clarity which they lacked at the time, when you couldn't see the forest for the trees. Now, perhaps with more experience, hopefully with more wisdom you can look back and see not only the forest but also the trees. When I am talking to young people about what they are going to do with their lives and they say they have no idea, I say, "Project yourself into the future. You are 70 years and looking back. What would you really regret not having done? What will have fulfilled you?" And that is what I say now. Time and distance provide a perspective that is somehow impossible for most people to attain when they are in the midst of it. That is why this book is important. You may not get all the wisdom you might get from one more wise than I, but at least you will get an honest effort to show what I have learned, and perhaps profit by it, not to make the same errors of omission yourself.