Annie Fox's Blog...

Thoughts about teens, tweens, parenting and this adventure of living on Earth in the 21st century.

I can forgive him (Or can I?)

January 17, 2012

I’m writing my first book for adults since Armchair BASIC. It’s called: Teaching Our Kids to Be Good People.

Since one person’s “good” might be another person’s “Are you kidding me?!” I knew I needed to be precise from the onset. So I asked several dozen of my most thoughtful friends, colleagues and family members “How do you define a ‘good’ person?”

Many intriguing and insightful responses galloped my way and I’m grateful. My plan is to dissect each one… all in good time. But at the moment, I’m focused on forgiveness.

That’s an aspect of “goodness” I hadn’t considered. Probably says something about me. I mean, I have overstayed my welcome at the Self-Pity Party, ahem… once or twice. So when one especially kind-hearted friend offered me this nugget: “A good person is forgiving”,  like a dog and a flying tennis ball, I was on it. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking.

  • What does it mean to be forgiving?
  • How do you actually forgive someone? Which muscle do you relax or clench?
  • What’s the connection between forgiving and forgetting? Are they mutually exclusive?
  • What might you gain by holding on to your resentment? Anger? Self-righteous indignation?
  • What might you lose?
  • Why is it so $#*@ hard to permanently unplug a memory that continues to wound each time you project it onto your mental movie screen?

These are open ended questions, my friends. I don’t know any useful answers… yet. Love to hear your thoughts.

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This book is free so take it

October 1, 2009

Download 'The Teen Survival Guide' for Free

It's all about healthy relationships (the only kind worth having)

We launched TheInSite in June 1997. From Day One Hey Terra received relationship questions from tweens and teens around the world. Twelve years later the email keeps coming. Pretty amazing this Internets!

After a couple of years of responding to this stuff every day, I decided to write a relationship book for teens. Can You Relate? was published in 2000. It’s my take on how to create and maintain healthy relationships with everyone in your life, including yourself.  It got great reviews. Five years later it was re-released as The Teen Survival Guide to Dating and Relating. It went out of print in 2008.

David and I played around with the idea of reprinting it ourselves for sale. But then, last month, thanks to Chris Anderson‘s influence, I decided to give my book away as a FREE download. No strings attached. You don’t even have to provide your email address, though I am partial to dark chocolate so if you wanted to send me a Panther Bar I wouldn’t be insulted.

Giving things away for free is not usually the way companies like to do business. That’s why I’m giving a big shout out to Free Spirit Publishing for being so supportive of this wacky idea. Shows what cool people they are. Check out their website. They publish great books for kids, teens, parents and teachers.

Anyway, here’s the entire volume of Teen Survival Guide to Dating and Relating. Everything your tweens and teens need to know about about guys, girls, growing up, and getting along. Give it to them with my compliments. Hopefully they’ll read it and think about how the situations and the advice apply to them. They might even remember the stuff that resonates and use it someday when they need it.

One more thing, if you’ve got friends with teens or tweens, pass on the free download link to them. That’s what friends are for.

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