Sometimes I feel like I should make a few classically youthful mistakes — not at all because I want to, all things considered.  I don’t want these things and I most likely will never do them — but I should do them to prevent myself from being a self-righteous parent.  Who is really just frightened by the brazenness of her children and their unfamiliar experiences. And who simply cannot understand a lack of self-control when it comes to certain things, even less the fragmented and childish philosophies which might promote those things.

But alas, I should do it the hard way.  Try to remember all those sinful ambiguities (perhaps even more sinful), without the guide of past explicit, clear-cut sin to temper my emotional reactions.