I just went back to the sex change thread to see if you ever responded to my last comments (and I see you did not). In rereading your comments about how I, as a nonmother, can’t really know anything about children and teens, something caught my eye: your reference to kids who “pop in and out of my life.” I realized you may see my contact with children as limited to a week or a month, and that could change the picture.

For the record, I’ve had kids who were (or are) part of my life for the better part of their childhood. For example, I spent seven years in my last Chicago house, and had kids who came by my home daily for several years. I was in the same Chicago church for 14 years (in heavy involvement with its children’s programs and the children in those programs–many of whom lived in my neighborhood for a double dose of interaction with me), and have been in my current church for five years. Those time periods are long enough to get to know children in a deeper way than popping in and out of one another’s lives.

I just thought you might want to know that, and it might help your assumption against the possibility of a non-parent ever knowing a particular child well or knowing anything about children in general! (And of course I’ve known my nieces and nephews, several of them now in their mid to late twenties, their entire lives.)

Anyway, since that thread seems to be dead, I thought I’d make that comment here. I hope you have a great week!

In 1952, I was a radio operator on B-29’s out of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I had just been promoted to S/Sgt, an NCO rank, and I was ready to re-enlist for a career in the Air Force. This poor kid never had it so good.
Then, Congress, in it’s wisdom, passed the Korean GI Bill. I applied to the U. of S. Carolina, was accepted, and left all that behind. It worked out well for me, though I never thought I diserved it.
I’m telling this to illustrate that McCain is correct. The structure of our military now is such that we need veterans in the service; Career men who know what they’re doing. Good pay, adequate quarters, and care for the families is what is important to the servicemen.
In 1979, A 4-star, speaking at the Naval WC, said, in effect (paraphrasing) “The men will tolerate any conditions when deployed if they’re confident their families are cared for.”

Comments Sawgunner?

As I mentioned, yesterday at church, veterans were recognized, and they were thanked on TV tonight. But this day isn’t about veterans, Veteran’s Day is for that. It’s about those who died in defense of our country.

Did I say it right, Chas?
It is one of sixteen Meyer-Brigg Personality Types

For instance, I stands for Introvert, the opposite of which is E for Extrovert. N stands for iNtuition, which is opposed to S for Sensing (meaning getting information through the five senses). F is for Feeling, which is contrasted with T for Thinking. The last two have names which don’t seem to really fit what they mean, but they have to do with whether you prefer to have matters settled (J for Judging) or keep your options open (P for Perceiving).

My husband is ENFJ, but he’s very close to P on the last one, so his personality is sort of in between an ENFJ and an ENFP.

I’m an ISTJ, and on the first characteristic at least, I’m at the extreme end of the continuum. I’m about as introverted as one can be. I want facts, not gut feelings, and I’m so oriented to thinking rather than feeling that I’ve had to make a conscious effort to learn to notice my emotions rather than ignoring them. And I certainly prefer to have most things settled rather than undecided (though I have to admit I often find it hard to make decisions).

If I had known all that when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have made the mistake of trying to teach high school. I forget what personality type is a particularly good fit for teaching children, but it sure isn’t ISTJ. ISTJ’s are much more suited to the types of work I’ve been doing for the past twenty years - computer programming, accounting, auditing.

There’s a great book called Please Understand Me that goes through all the different types, and their implications for career, marriage, and parenting. That was how I learned that it wasn’t a defect to be an introvert, and that it’s not that I don’t like people, I just find it tiring to be around people for any length of time. Being alone builds up my energy. Extroverts tend to be the opposite - they get charged up by being around people.

I appreciated what you wrote. So many forget how very emotionally vulnerable kids are at that age. Things that we adults can shrug off or deal with can be utterly devastating to a teen.

My pastor’s wife (who’s also my dear friend) also has that empathy with teens, & ministers to them so well. I’m sure you must be wonderful with girls of that age.

“I’m nuts for Jesus?”

Yesterday, we had a brief recognition of veterans and a prayer for the families of the slain. An interesting twist. Pastor Ron recognized WW II, then Korean, Viet Nam, on to the present. The sobering thing was how few WW II veterans we have left. My SS class has several. My SS teacher was a chaplain during WW II.

Someone pointed those out on another thread, and I thanked her. The meaning of our blessing God and His blessing us do seem to be different, though, and I can’t see that it’s either/or. We don’t deserve His blessing, but then, we never do deserve grace.

My church picnic got cancelled this afternoon due to potentially dangerous weather. I guess I’ll get some work done. One of my brothers is coming to town later in the week, so I guess that will be my “holiday” instead. And I’m editing a book for him (my brother) on Vietnam POWs, so I suppose that’s a good project for Memorial Day!