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Loreen's Friends Without Children Are Appalled
By Nita Penfold
When Loreen advises her older daughter
to move in with her boyfriend since
in a month they are driving cross-country
to follow the Grateful Dead.
Loreen thinks it's better and safer
for her daughter to find out
if they get along and
if this is the kind of guy
who would dump her
halfway across the country,
BEFORE
the trip.
In her Bible, rigid morality
falls far behind practicality.
Later, when her younger daughter calls her
from L.A. to say she's engaged at eighteen
to the checker-haired heavy metal singer
she's been talking to on the phone for four years,
Loreen does the only thing a responsible parent can:
she sends her a congratulations card,
trusting that her daughter
will come to her senses much
faster if she doesn't have
her mother's disapproval to rebel against.
Sure enough, her daughter calls to say
she can't live that kind of life.
Loreen lets out the breath she's been holding
for a month and uncrosses her bent fingers.