Eight years ago we celebrated Ethan’s eleventh birthday. It wasn’t the only thing that happened that day.

The years between 11 and 19 include extraordinary change. Those same eight years were dramatic (and tragic) for the United States. I’m thinking the journey through the teen years has some similarities to the political climate during much of the past eight years. It would be offensive to me (and to Ethan) to look for similarities with the Bush/Cheney years, but a few things start to come to mind when thinking about some generalities of male teens in tandem with the Bush Cheney era: pushing rules outside acceptable boundaries, seeking “justice” through retribution, anger, using aggressive behavior to hide insecurity, a tendency to be self-centered, creating unstable alliances, and way too much testosterone.