i don’t take personally my friends foibles i guess. i don’t consider their bragging about their kids to be an affront or rude in any way. people always have reasons for the way they are. one of my best friends grew up in Guyana SA, is now an atty married to another atty, and has the daughter who graduated from Harvard who is now over at Oxford. Do you think that coming from the Third World might in some way have something to do with the bragging? i do. and i also know she is a wonderfully kind and generous friend who would do anything for me or my family. when my father died, her husband drove their daughter, who is one of xsteen’s best friends, 5 hours each way in one day, so they could pay their respects at the funeral home.
Most people who come from the Third World have a stronger work ethic and are very goal oriented-like most Americans used to be-and they have every right to brag. But both of these friends are from the same background as mine-nothing notable there, except that one of them married into wealth.
I first encountered the letter thing as a casemanager in the 80’s-it was promoted as a self esteem exercise of sorts-I think it escaped the realm of therapy and evolved into what it is now.