"He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows."

On Daughters, Vocation & Human Happiness

by Richard Becker

The Sound of Music just finished its run at the college where I work, and my daughter had a part: Brigitta, one of the von Trapp children. Everyone in the production did a marvelous job, although (you’ll forgive me—I’m a dad) I think that my daughter gave an especially outstanding performance. Bravo!

Another standout of the show was Uncle Max. The student who played him brought an air of gusto and joie de vivre to the character that I don’t recall from the film version, and Max’s fundamental transparency was highlighted as a result. “I like rich people,” Max unabashedly declares at one point. “I like the way they live. I like the way I live when I’m with them.” There was no trouble believing him.

Refreshing honesty like Uncle Max’s is in short supply these days, but young women got a heaping dose from Susan Patton in her Valentine’s Day reflection in the Wall Street Journal last week. Lines like this:


Despite all of the focus on professional advancement, for most of you the cornerstone of your future happiness will be the man you marry. But chances are that you haven’t been investing nearly as much energy in planning for your personal happiness as you are planning for your next promotion at work. What are you waiting for?

The advice Patton dishes up may not be universally palatable, but I think she deserves some credit for having served it up at all, and with so much candor. Instead, she’s catching a whole bunch of grief—like Emma Gray at the Huffington Post, and Alexandra Petri at the Washington Post. Petri’s critique is satirical, and particularly harsh:


Don’t listen to Susan Patton, who is trying to sugar-coat it. Here is the REAL, COLD, HARD, UGLY TRUTH, in BLOCK CAPITALS. Women, if you are alone on Valentine’s Day, right now, reading this, over your giant bucket of ice cream, it is because you have Failed. You heard me.

Funny, yes, but pretty predictable.

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