Highly functioning people may not be the people with the highest salaries, the most prestigious titles, or posses the most social clout. They are people of all ages who:

• Are able to be with their parents without becoming reactive, shutting down, or regressing into childhood mannerisms. They are able to be with their elderly or needy parents without becoming patronizing or authoritarian. They are able to discuss care for elderly parents with adult siblings without becoming reactive, vindictive, or childish.     
• Are able to hold their own with all people without resorting to judgements, insults, or stereotypes.
• Resist group pressures  – group-thinking, group-feeling, group-fleeing, group-seeing – and are able to think (and see, and decide) for themselves when in a crowd, especially when the crowd is family. 
• Have the courage to speak up to authority when it’s necessary with calmness, politeness, and reason. At the same time they do not attempt to reason with the unreasonable.
• Take responsibility for their actions, debts, conflicts, and do their part in finding solutions to the dilemmas and difficulties they face. They don’t blame anyone or anything for their problems and dilemmas.
• Resist the pressure to over-function (do for others what they are fully capable of doing for themselves – polite favors and niceties excluded) and under-function (expect others to do for them what they are fully capable of doing for themselves) especially when it comes to immediate family.   

It is with family, extended and immediate, that our emotional health issues are usually most successfully triggered. It is within the family that most of us are faced with most of our work. Get it growing and right in our families and our health usually permeates to all areas of our lives. 

Love and trust are gold and glue in all relationships.  

The one who says “I love you; I trust you” is the one doing the loving and trusting. 

When I love and trust my sons I am the one who is choosing to place my fallible love and my capacity to trust in them. 

My willing choices have nothing to do with them but reflect the kind of person I want to be. 

By loving and trusting my sons, and anyone else for that matter, I am minding my own business. 

My sons, and anyone else, do not have to do anything in return. 

They do not have to love or trust me back. 

Of course it is wonderful when things are reciprocal but love and trust (and honesty and truth) are not currency in a trade.

As a consequence of exercising my fallible ability to love and to trust my capacity for both has been stimulated and rewarded and, even though I often fail, it’s made everything, everywhere  more beautiful. The return on investment has been well rewarded.

If a son, or anyone, breaks my trust or tests my love I am faced with the challenge to love and trust again and again because that’s the kind of person I want to be. 

May I join you in this journey?

Several ways you can tell you are dating a really healthy person (or not):

• He/she has a life already and is not waiting for you to complete it. There is no desperation in tone or behavior. There are no threats if you are unavailable!
• He/she has a job and is not looking to you for a loan. There is no talk of the big sale that’s just about to occur or the ship that’s coming in or the horse that’s going to win. If there’s talk of incredible international fame waiting in the wings you’ve just seen a red flag. 
• He/she has ongoing and positive and frequent and open conversations with his/her family. It may not be perfect but there are no permanent cut-offs or talk of hating anyone. A person who says things like, “I hate my brother / mom / dad,” is showing you the menu so you know what will be served.
• He/she is both planned and spontaneous – yes, it is possible. Planning occurs because it’s wise (you get more done) but plans can be modified if something more exciting comes up. Emotional health and spontaneity are very close cousins.

(All of the above are in response to real (usually on-line) dating circumstances.)

The Mercury / Friday

Endure with me – this is meant to be helpful and not an insult:

Keep in mind as we evaluate our lives and relationships that we are mammals.

We are individually loaded with instinctive drives and have group behaviors that make this evident to even the casual observer.

But, we are each much more than a mammal; together, much more than packs, flocks, droves, crashes (rhinos) or herds.

Deny this and we limit our self-understanding, understanding of others, and of groups.

You may have noticed:

We herd. We love to get together. We quickly establish hierarchy, pecking orders. Observe large crowds and you will identify behaviors that parallel behaviors observable in game parks.

We are territorial. Look no further than the fences around homes; watch elders suss out to accept or reject new members.

We desire leadership. We recognize it in some, not in others. We respect it until we challenge and dethrone it.

We flock, storm, intimidate, and, when necessary, we freeze or take flight.

We have routines, habits, and expectations of nurturing and protecting when it comes to the young and the elderly that are mirrored in the wild.

So what?

Our mammalian traits are inescapable assets.

But, we are more: we are human.

We can think, plan, learn from errors, record history, exercise vast imaginations, and offer our communities amazing cooperation and generosity and, individually and collectively, enter enduring dialogue with the very Heart of God.

It’s easy to judge what appears to be poor parenting: the mother who can’t let go, the dad who can’t say no to a three-year-old, the elderly parent who gets scammed by an adult son or daughter and on and on and on….. 

I’d suggest some caution. 

You probably have little idea of what the family has endured to deliver them to this point. What you observe has history. The most powerful forces may predate the participants by generations who may themselves be unaware of the generational tides giving rise to the behavior. 

Off-spring, of all ages, usually have inordinate power over parents. They have our number and know our hot buttons. They know we usually ache when they do. They know we have to resist involving ourselves in things that are none of our business. What you are observing is people on a tight-rope of love, compassion, dreams, desires, successes, heartaches, and failures. Rational behavior, especially to the outside observer, is not that easy. 

The parent is simultaneously trying to enjoy the present, while hoping for the future, and scaling the walls of the past. Many a parent was never reared with any plan, skill, or imagination. He or she simply “got older” and now, in trying to do better for his or her children, is fighting battles to which you, the critic, may be absolutely blind.  

The Mercury / Thursday

Being civil doesn’t cost much:

• Say please and thank you a lot – this may help you get over any feelings of entitlement if you have any.

• Return calls, respond to emails, do what you say you are going to do – this may help others trust you more than they already do and it may do some repair if they don’t.

• Be nice to people and you will usually get their cooperation – really, does anyone enjoy working with unpleasant people?

• Don’t exaggerate or lie to get the best deal or the lowest price – you may save a little cash or cut a deal but lose your integrity, and once you go down that road there’s no knowing what compromises you will make.

• Listen more than you talk and you may actually learn something new – regarding everyone as your potential teacher despite age or rank or wealth can be very refreshing.

• Clean up after yourself – making life easier for others will probably make it easier for you, too.

• Look for ways to serve rather than to be served – and you’ll be amazed at how quickly the tables may turn in your favor.

• Be on time for appointments. This is about respecting other people’s time. Most friends will accommodate the occasional lapse and most people understand that there are variables beyond your control but do all you can to be on time. It’s the civil thing to do.

(By the way, it’s always a letter to self, first)

“I have been married for many years and husband has recently become a cell phone addict. He watches series, movies, YouTube videos. I do what keeps me smiling. I am passionate about: education, health, and wellness. I teach, I keep fit, I do voluntary work and socialize with wise people who I can learn from so I can impart knowledge. I strive to be the best version of myself by being absolutely sincere and caring by giving to all those who need comforting, love and care. I am sad for my children who will not see their dad as a role model to look up to. Your articles inspire me tremendously. Anonymous”

Thank you for your honesty. Your letter reflects your inner-resolve to not allow what has captured your husband to also derail you. This is part of your process of “differentiation of self” and I commend you for it. You express no contempt for your husband and for this too, I commend you. I am reminded of James Framo, a renowned family therapist who commented in a training video, “When a person gives up expecting much from life he falls in love with things.” Let’s hope your husband will escape the prison of the small screen and join you in your beautiful journey.

Allow others to speak down to you and you will begin to look down on yourself. You will begin to see yourself through their lens and even begin to agree with them.

Allow others to speak ill of you and you will begin to hide and avoid people and believe their disrespect is somehow deserved. You will begin to carry a sense of shame that’s difficult to shed.  

Allow others to lie to you, and then on top of that make excuses for them, and you will begin to fumble with what it true and what is not and soon you will be unable to tell the difference. You will begin to question your judgment and sanity about even insignificant matters.

Firmly, kindly address those who choose to treat you poorly, knowing you will ruffle feathers or rock the boat.

Use “I” statements. Define yourself; not others. Don’t go into detail.

People who treat others in the ways I have described – power-hungry people – love an argument. They will bully you into seeing just how wrong you are and how much you’ve misunderstood them.

Relationships are not about winning or losing and you know that.

They don’t.

Do not be afraid to walk away from ANY relationship that does not hold you in highest regard. Life is far too short and already far too difficult to have to bear the added burden of accommodating another person’s unresolved power-issues.

When you surrender control…

1. You will shift the balance of power and be re-energized. From expending valuable energy on the wild-goose chase of “fixing” others to deploying it where you have some power by working on yourself.

2. You will gain confidence in the areas that you can influence, instead of the dulling, draining, and desperate experience of having to keep the world and all its concerns on track.

3. You will join humanity rather than separate yourself and judge it – you will accept your failings and frailties and discover you can do the same with others.

4. Your anxiety will plummet, your joy will be rejuvenated, and your need for control fade while you are (slowly) delivered to a beautiful new place called Being-More-Human.

5. You will find your natural place in your family and community rather than have to arm-wrestle the world for significance.

6. You will not only be able to stop and smell the roses, you will be able to plant and tend roses, and have bunches to distribute to along the way.

7. You will be loved for who you are and, believe it or not, it won’t be because you made it happen.

The Mercury / Monday

“My wife and I disagree when it comes to two children and mobile phones; one lives overseas and the other in Cape Town. When visiting, I had to constantly tell them put their telephones in company. My 33-year-old continues to play with his mobile phone and playing card games and holding a two-way conversation and she does not object! Also, when they yawn, I always told them to place their hand across their mouth but this has fallen on deaf ears. I have complained and this last weekend made a decision to say nothing about this mobile phone playing, to a point that my conversation with him was limited. To be quite honest I felt that coming home was a waste of time. Having said this to my wife she was in tears that I could think like this. Having spoken to other fathers, parents should be on the same side so that the children ‘know their place’.”

Your frustration is clear. But, you do not have children. Your sons are adults and parenting has ended. Love, embrace your sons exactly as they are. Their “place” is one of equality in every manner with you, yawns and all. Their poor manners expressed toward you is no reflection on you or your wife.