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["roxann" <roxann AT ancientearthwisdom.com>]

> The game really is rigged.  To teach a child, today, about honesty
> and good will; forgiveness and trust is to turn that child into an
> easy mark. Those lessons should certainly be taught but with the
> proviso that they only apply with family and the familie's immediate
> circle of friends.  Outside that circle they should be taught the way
> the world really works.

Maybe that is true if you want to play whatever game you've been playing, 
Bob. But I've always been trusting (to a point), I forgive and try to be kind 
to everyone. I teach my kids to be the same and would never teach them to be 
anything less. I've never been grossly taken advantage of in business 
dealings, never been stabbed in the back by ladder climbers, and never wished 
I'd have taken a harder approach to life. But there's a difference between 
naivete and kind - I don't want my kids to be naive at all. You can be 
trusting and yet remain open to the possibility that you may be wrong about 
someone's motives. Be trusting, yet alert. Know your own boundaries and don't 
blindly follow someone past them. Those approaches hold true whether family 
or not.


Roxann, NW AR
http://blog.ancientearthwisdom.com (Ozark Musings from the homestead)
http://www.madisonwoods.wordpress.com (Fantasy Fiction works in progress)