Son,

You note that yours is a ‘non-traditional’ family. I don’t quite get it. There is a loving, married, mother and father, a daughter and a son, all living under one roof. You and your spouse worry about the health, safety, and future of your family. The description of your family describes the traditional family of millenniums. Your mother and I suffered financially because we chose to have one parent stay home – we were married 17 years before she went to work. The results are three wonderful, responsible, educated, hard working adult children.

The times are changing quickly – so much so that there is no longer any identifiable ‘tradition’ that can be recognized by labor patterns. Think in terms of human history. Until the industrial revolution of about two hundred years ago about ninety-seven percent of the population was agrarian – children stayed home with both parents.

We are not talking about family tradition, we are talking about pop-culture (popular culture) – the pop-culture of fundamentalists. The Beatles pop-culture – if you do not have long hair you are not groovy. Vietnam pop-culture – if you do not protest the war then you are not cool. Ronald Reagan pop-culture – if your are not… Christian Fundamentalist pop-culture – if you don’t believe in HeyZeus the same way I do then you are going straight to hell.

I am proud of you boy. The most important thing in your life today will be the most important thing in your life thirty years from now – your wife and children. Keep up the good work.

Dad