I learned something very simple, very basic, and very important about parenting while on vacation, overseas, these past three weeks. I was being selfish. I have two teenagers who needed their dad, and this three-week trip was an indulgence that wasn’t necessary, was too long, and resulted in my not being there for my older son when he needed me.
As luck would have it, I got sick and we returned a few days early, right as his crisis was in full bloom. Only due to this odd, …

Last year, after my honeymoon to Africa, I struggled a bit to find the right material from that extraordinary experience to write about in my column. Happily, I came through with two of my personal favorite columns: each called “African Reflections” (Parts One and Two). This year, as I’m finishing up our trip to the Canary Islands, Morocco, and Portugal, I realized that I have more than enough material for a column. Consequently, I will share some highlights and also encourage you to visit my “A Dad’s Point-of-View” Facebook page …

While on a recent skiing trip, I had a casual dinner with casual friends, including a couple that had been married, divorced, and were now dating again. As is so often the case, on the surface, they looked great together, so it seemed natural that the conversation went in the direction of “why did you two break up?”
The woman laughed and said, “it’s a long story,” at which point she began, without missing a beat, telling it to us. It boiled down to the simple fact that she and …

There was a slogan in the early days of the feminist movement that went something like, “A woman needs a man as much as a fish needs a bicycle.” I was part of that generation, that also said, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” among other things equally foolish. I seem to remember that whoever said that, about not trusting someone over 30, was a rock ‘n’ roll star that still tours, now in his 60’s. I wonder if he’s changed his mind? For my money, the …

Life often gives us opportunities to choose between right and wrong. I faced this head on recently when I discovered that one of the web-sites that carry my column had a very radical anti-Israel agenda. At first, I didn’t even realize how marginal and fanatical it was. Since my focus is not on politics, I just didn’t vet this web-site sufficiently, given my naïveté, when I first began distributing my column.
The fact that the editor was extraordinarily gracious and accommodating further lured me into not even considering that his site’s …