Help To Get Through Mom, Son Minefield
As the lead story on this page demonstrates, the mother-son relationship can be a minefield of emotion. That’s why Michael Gurian is holding a series of classes on that very subject. The six-week course, which will be held Tuesday nights from 7 to 9 at the Deaconess Health and Education Center, begins April 18.
Stressing that “everything is individual,” Gurian, who writes on men’s issues for The Spokesman-Review, explains that, “The males in our culture are involved in push-pull or confused intimacy with their spouses because their individuation from their mothers was not well-handled in adolescence.”
Gurian’s intent is to make the class setting “a safe place to work together and find a better way to have a mother-son relationship.”
The class, which is sponsored by the Inland Northwest Men’s Evolvement Network (INMEN), costs $65, although group discounts are available. To register, call 624-1436.
“There are some good mother-son relationships out there,” Gurian says, “but I don’t know many. And I don’t know hardly any that have occurred without years and years and years of pain. On both sides.”
Long before Warren Farrell In a recent issue of Life magazine, several “eminent thinkers” - scholars, theologians, historians and the like - were asked to divulge their notion of what the real Jesus Christ was like. Susan Haskins, author of “Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor,” had this to say:
“He was a feminist,” Haskins wrote. “He cured ill women, allowed them to become people who related his truths, forgave a repentant prostitute, allowed her to touch him. Women gave their money to support him. Mary Magdalen was the first witness to the Resurrection - what’s more important than that, in Christianity? She was apostle to the apostles, told by Christ to go tell them he had risen. There should be a role for women to preach and teach today - a role too often denied.”
xxxx Keeping promises Another Promise Keepers gathering is planned for 7 p.m. Friday, April 21, at the Moscow Church of the Nazarene in Moscow. According to event organizers, the keynote speaker will be Dan Hollis of the Promise Keepers national office. There is no fee for the event. For further information, call (208) 882-8607 or (208) 882-7473.
Common Ground is written on alternating weeks by Dan Webster and Rebecca Nappi. Write to them in care of The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615. Or fax, (509) 459-5098.