Thank You!
Wednesday December 19, 2007
Dr. Miller,
A few years ago, I read your book, THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. I wasn’t looking for books about child abuse. I just saw it in a book store, and titles like that appeal to me. I picked it up and couldn’t put it down. Never before had I seen the pattern of denial so brilliantly explicated. My heart aches for the people of whom you write and for my childhood self, who knew right from wrong but had not the power or even the voice to declare it.
This particular book of yours was published here in the U.S. in 2001, the year my son (now almost seven) was born. Whenever I get angry or impatient with him, I have only to glance at the spine of your book on the shelf, and I remember myself. I remember the dignity that I have a right to as an adult and the respect that my son deserves as a growing person.
Much of what parents seek to do is for their own convenience. How much better our lives would be if we each put forth the effort to do what is right. Thank you so much for making the great effort you have. You have polished the moral compass of humanity so that it is not only readable, it now shines brightly across the globe.
For the record, I had years earlier freed myself from religion and I’ve since been studying the wisdom of Taoism. Your book (I’m sure all) encourages people to engage their own sense of morality and evolve beyond the harmful dogmas that organized religions have inflicted on society.
Thank you again, D. G.
AM: Thank you for your moving letter. I like to think that looking at your book-shelfs and seeing my book helps you not to spank your child.