Set a Course for Adventure

This is the second in an ongoing series about love in the month of February. The first installment is open to all. This and subsequent entries are only available for paid subscribers.

Love, exciting and new

Come aboard, we're expecting you

Love, life's sweetest reward

Let it flow, it floats back to you

Love Boat soon will be making another run

The Love Boat promises something for everyone

Set a course for adventure

Your mind on a new romance

and Love won't hurt anymore

It's an open smile on a friendly shore

Yes love...

I was raised by television.

You may think that I am exaggerating for dramatic effect, but I mean it quite literally. While my mom did many parental things (she paid rent, made sure we had clothes and food in the house most of the time, ensured we went to school, and had Christmas presents) she left the emotional work of child rearing to Big Bird and Fred Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. It was TV that taught me lessons about life, about people, and about the way the world worked. And this education would continue throughout my childhood and into early adulthood.

I don’t think my mom was the only parent in the 70s and 80s who outsourced much of their parenting to television. Most of the people in my generation had parents who loved their kids, but at a distance. I think the predominant parenting style in the 70s and early 80s was benign neglect.

TV taught me a lot about life. And it also taught me a lot about love.

One of my favorite shows was The Love Boat. Every