Forty Is ... An Age

Alternative Lifestyles, The Emotional Fly-drive Packages Of Our Times, Come Equipped With A Set Of Clothes, A Choice Of Authors, A Limited Menu Of Sports And A Discount Coupon Book Of Clichés.

I Wonder Whether Our Adoption Of Shrink-ese As A Second Language, The Move From Religious Phrases Of Judgment To Secular Words Of Acceptance, Hasn't Also Produced A Moral Lobotomy. In The Reluctance, The Aversion To Being Judgmental, Are We Disabled From Making Any Judgments At All?

All In All, I Am Not Surprised That The People Who Want To Unravel The Social Contract Start With Young Adults. Those Who Are Urged To Feel Afraid, Very Afraid, Have Both The Greatest Sense Of Independence And The Most Finely Honed Skepticism About Government.

Who's Counting? It Was, Of Course, The Minority Who Were Counting. It Always Is. Most Of The Women I Know Today Would Dearly Like To Use Their Fingers And Toes For Some Activity More Enthralling Than Counting. They Have Been Counting For So Long. But The Peculiar Problem Of The New Math Is That Every Time We Stop Adding, Somebody Starts Subtracting. At The Very Least (the Advanced Students Will Understand This) The Rate Of Increase Slows. ... The Minority Members Of Any Group Or Profession Have Two Answers: They Can Keep Score Or They Can Lose.

How Many Of The People I Know - Sons And Daughters - Have Intricate Abstract Expressionist Paintings Of Their Mothers, Created Out Of Their Own Emotions, Attitudes, Hands. And How Many Have Only Polaroid Pictures Of Their Fathers.