The journey from there to here
Gideon MacLeish's Articles In Personal Relationships
July 8, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
D, Today you are twelve years old. Twelve years that have flown by too fast, leaving me reflecting back on the blur that was your first tooth, your first steps, your first ballgame, your first plane ride…all of those special firsts that will forever be part of my memory. I don’t know if there’s a way I can begin to explain how special these years have been to me, how special you are to me. I am proud to see you become the young lady you’re becoming and making the choices you make. In so ma...
June 2, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Unfortunately, due to the blacklisting, I'm forced to reply to a question asked of me through my own blog. I will do so. Here is the text of the question: You are having a heated argument with an acquaintance, a disagreement of sorts, suddenly party A says "hey you hurt my feelings" Party B' Says no I did not! I always thought it was up to the party that had his feelings hurt to decide if they were hurt or not. How can anyone say "I did not hurt your feelings" when Party A made it ...
December 1, 2005 by Gideon MacLeish
I have very little contact with my "natural" family. I haven't spoken with my father in over two years, or my mother in over a year. While the "trendy" thing to do would be to contact them in one way or another, I realized some time ago that what I need to do is get on with my life. You see, some relationships in our lvies are toxic. They are a poison best avoided for our own mental well being. Just as a person can get addicted to a drug, alcohol, or gambling, a person can get addicted t...
May 18, 2005 by Gideon MacLeish
A recent blog article plus some particular events of the last several months have led me to evaluate what is truly important in a friendship. When everything's taken into consideration, honesty trumps them all. Don't get me wrong; I don't hate someone who is deceitful. Frankly, I don't hate ANYONE as a person in general. But when their actions show them to be other than the person they presented, there's a credibility gap there that can't easily be fixed. You see, lying to a "friend" is th...
April 14, 2005 by Gideon MacLeish
A couple of recent blogs prompted this one. The blogs centered around the frustration of parents in dealing with their children, and, in one case, the accusation that Terri Schiavo (referred in the past by that poster as "that bitch!") was entirely responsible for her own death. The thing that struck me as a common thread in all of those blogs is that they don't understand the impact of a good, honest friendship. They also had limited understanding of what it i like to deal with chronic menta...
December 4, 2004 by Gideon MacLeish
As I have been on JU, I have had the privilege and honor of reading the blogs of JU's military wives. I won't begin in naming them, out of fear of omitting some and causing them to feel left out, but you know who you are. I want to say first and foremost, thank you. In the time you have taken to blog on JU, I have seen your hurts and frustration, hopes and fears, and feel that I have gotten to know you personally, as you are prone to express thoughts on here that you might not otherwise ...
November 11, 2004 by Gideon MacLeish
"You don't demand respect; you earn it". These were words I was taught many years ago by a woman who raised us among a revolving door of "father figures", most of whom were abusive and/or drunk, some of whom took up residence for little more than a week (I believe it would be a conservative estimate to say that in the approximately 5 years I spent with my mother growing up, I had at least 10 "stepfathers"), and who, ultimately proved that she had earned our respect by leaving us without trans...