Have you ever read one of those how to talk to your teenager articles in magazines of dubious editorial content? Ha! What a lot of nonsense! Who are those writers? We drove one of our goddaughters to camp today, not to be a camper but a counselor. She is a delightful seventeen year old full of spirit whose ability at non-stop talking with her friends is without parallel. We began and ended the trip with happy hugs and words of love you. In between, with her iPod firmly embedded deep in her skull, we got two hours of occasional one word mumbles about something unintelligible to our attempts at conversation. Now and then I’d turn around to see if she was still breathing. In contrast, I got a phone call the other day from her sister asking for my immediate if not sooner response to her important question that she rattled off at tongue tripping light speed. I have no idea what she said. I saw her the next day and whatever it was had been long forgotten and of no further consequence. We have a niece who is 200 to 400% better, which is to say that she has been known to endow us with two to four words spoken in succession under the glare of her mother’s encouragement. We love them dearly and look forward to resuming conversation in another couple of years. At least that’s the way it worked with our own children. (We shall see if SS let’s me keep this post up)