April 26, 2019 I CAN'T GO FOR THAT

Life isn't fair. My father used to say that to me when I was a teenager. It annoyed me SO much.  His rational--as far as I was concerned--DEFIED logic. Why couldn't I have two dates in a weekend?? He'd reply--BECAUSE I SAID SO. Then  I'D YELL--That's NOT FAIR--to which he'd reply--Life isn't fair get used to it.  UGH. Every time I hear that statement--I CRINGE. It's been 35 years AND that statement STILL makes my BLOOD BOIL. Image my horror when I ACTUALLY had to tell some of my students that LIFE WASN'T FAIR TODAY. I could barely SPIT THE WORDS OUT.  I think it's because those words make me feel powerless.  Kids shouldn't have to learn that LIFE ISN'T FAIR because adults abuse their power. SHAKING MY HEAD..........wondering what's wrong with this world. Life isn't fair should ONLY be applied to important things like Dani Shapiro finding out that her whole life is a lie in her  new memoir Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love.   

Imagine taking an Ancestry.com test to find out more about your family tree, but  instead you  find out that your father isn't your father. This is exactly what happened to Shapiro when she was 54 years old. This event shook her to the core. Shapiro, a best-selling writer, spent her life writing memoirs about her family  only to find out that it was a lie. She wasn't really the daughter of a conservative Jewish family--but a Christian family on the other side of the country. This book is about Shapiro's journey toward understanding the secrets her family kept and the reasons she was never told. It's also a story about medical ethics. Should donors be anonymous or does the person have the right to know. Equally fascinating is that Shapiro actually found her biological father only 36 hours after discovering the truth. This must read is about 270 pages or a 3 mile run that is not only  interesting but timely.