I am buried in education debt, a fact for which I do not fault my mother. My father, yes, but that’s another story. I financed my education through a combination of work study and loans. What I would like to do for my children is to make them think that they were entirely responsible for the cost of higher education, but at least as high as a bachelor’s degree I’d want to make sure they had no debt at the end.

Daryl – I’m sure you are right… I have no way of knowing the logic employed in some of the decisions my parents made. I suspect some was necessity that I would not have understood or appreciated at the time.

I will say this though. My dad definitely favored my sister in many ways that I deemed unfair. Now, it is possible that my mom favored me and that was his way of trying to balance but she passed away when I was 15 and if that was indeed the case, the balance did not shift back to counter the loss of a parent.

Trying to get back on track with the actual topic. I think my dad (only child)was denied very little. My mom, maybe more based on the attitudes a very catholic mother and a very selfish father. If I should have two or more children, I will try as hard as I can to make sure the scales are balanced between them…

I remember being denied nothing, except a pair of Beatle Boots just before sixth or seventh grade in late summer just before the start of school, when we were shopping for school clothes. My brother had wornout/outgrown his shoes. I had not. Mom and Dad were being practical, money was limited. He got the Beatle Boots. I got to wear the shoes from the end of the year before.

Such a weird memory to have surface. I remember I cried. Looking back, I’m ashamed. What did I know back then? Not nearly enough about having to choose. Not nearly enough about the world.

On the one hand, I recognize how the construction of the post might sound stilted to some.

On the other, I said it exactly as I intended.

On the one hand, sometimes it is useful to engage and respond.

On the other, it usually feels like the energy is wasted.

As to the question of the deletion, I have made it abundantly clear to Marcia that her comments are no longer welcome here, but since she continues to frequent, and respond to, a site which she deems beneath her, I would like to state, as clearly as I can, that I deleted at least a half dozen of her comments over the past few years because of meanness or condescension, comments that in no way were necessary or even accurate.

I allowed her that courtesy out of respect for her relationship with my family. I no longer feel that to be necessary.

Anyway, I will allow this to stand as my response to this and future carelessness.

And, to answer my own question:

1. intellectual freedom.

2. sexual freedom.

Question one: respect.

Question two: the opportunity to use the slap as a means of communication.

The ability to write a clear sentence?