Ask Him Why

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I’m never going to judge

somebody I don’t know. And if somebody is accused of something in the newspaper or on TV, I’m going to remember that maybe he did it or maybe he didn’t. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.

I decided I would be strong, not because I had to be, not because they had used up all the weakness, but because strong was what I wanted for myself.

punished, though. I didn’t mind at all. It made me feel closer to him. Like the world had given us one

Your parents are the heart o’ the problem, you know, and how could he solve the problem if he couldn’t even talk to them? Except in another way they’re not the problem, at least not the start of it and not on purpose, because they likely grew up the same. They didn’t get

what they needed from their folks, so now they can’t give you kids what they don’t have. They’re the victims and the perpetrators, both, and the cycle just keeps going around and around.

“Maybe that the things we tend to criticize in other people are actually pretty easy mistakes to make.