Welcome to a new edition of Left Wondering with Joel Stein, our advice column for paid subscribers of The Lever on how to lead an ethical life in an increasingly unethical world.
Have a question about how to make a personal decision related to climate change, corporatization, politics, wealth inequality, globalization, or other matters that you’d like Joel to answer? Send it to LeftWondering@levernews.com.
Dear Left Wondering,
At a recent lunch with my mother (a former/perhaps lingering Trump supporter and burgeoning Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fan) we were discussing the weather when she explained to me that while the climate may be changing, it just really isn’t that big a deal. We went back and forth a bit, to no end, and then I pretty much called her a murderer, to which she took offense, and now we aren’t speaking. So my question is… what is to be done, if anything, about Thanksgiving, my mother, and/or my rage?
From,
Angry Daughter
Dear Angry Daughter,
Our lawyers compel me to tell you that I am not a certified family therapist. However, my mother is. So I asked her for advice.
This is what she, a certified family therapist, albeit one who has been retired for a long time, advises:
First, you have to apologize to your mother for calling her a murderer. Then you can thank her for the passion she has helped instill in you that allows you to feel so strongly about climate change. What a good job she has done. After she relaxes and forgives you, maybe you can agree not to discuss politics at Thanksgiving and offer to cook the turkey.
This is wise advice. And also thinly veiled subtext asking me to thank her for raising me.
My advice — which, for legal reasons, you should regard as “a novelty” (whatever the hell that means, lawyers) — is similar to the one given by the person who was such a good mom that she instilled in me the kind of passion that made me pursue my dream of being an advice columnist.
