Letters to the Editor
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Exactly what it feels like...
"If she chooses to keep smoking pot, she is telling her kid to fuck off.
That is what she is saying. That is what it feels like. "
Cary nailed it. Substitute vodka for the pot, dress the characters in bad 1970's fashions, change some cultural window dressing, and you have my teen years. And there is no bigger waste in the world than a parent looking at a child through a haze and trying to demand "respect." The more the parent asserts the right to destroy him or herself and denies the reality of the state he or she is in, the more love and respect gets eroded.
There are ways to rebuild the love and respect, but they're not surefire. They take a lot of work and a lot of time. Like 30 years and counting.