We can’t change the past

We can’t change the past
Saturday January 24, 2009

Dear Alice,
When I read your books, my insides quiver and I know you are right. I knew this as a child without knowing I knew it. Having been raised in a strict Christian household, the beatings and humiliations were plentiful. Then as a mother at age 18 which was expected if not required (to perpetuate the species, no doubt), I became depressed and overwhelmed. Now my (6) children are all raised with their own problems of course, because I raised them the way I was raised. I am introducing one of my sons to your work. How else can I help him and the others? Especially the narcisisstic daughter who will not speak to me because of her childhood. I absolutely understand why she feels the way she does, and I wish there were a way to tell her. I don’t want her to think I just need to be absolved of guilt. I am guilty and if she doesn’t talk to me for the rest of her life, I can accept that, but I wish she could hear about your work.
I would be truly amazed if it were to be that I could hear an answer from you. I think it would be a lifeline to the depression that I have felt since childhood about the hopelessness of this life. I am 50 now and feel that I have completely missed my life. I love my children very much and wish they might know who they are and what they feel before they become like me.
Can you make a suggestion?
Sincerely, C

AM: You can’t force your children to read my books, nobody can. You can only read more of them, wich can help you to really discover your childhood.