Hi, I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger, welcoming you to our YouTube channel. And here's a letter from Misty:
"I am a 20-year-old college junior, who is completely independent of my parents, with the glaring exception of health insurance.
I'm a bit of a thrill-seeker, and I like 'dangerous' adventures. Must I live life 'safely' because of how my potential death would affect my parents? [I guarantee you that in almost 40 years (laughs) I've never heard that question.]
When we get into an argument about my doing something potentially stupid and unsafe, my father always says: 'It's selfish to think your death would only affect you.' If they had been terrible parents and my only debt to them was monetary, I wouldn't feel guilty at all...but they weren't. They were loving parents who brought me up with morals and integrity in an unbroken home. I can't ever repay that debt! And yet the worst, most ungrateful, part of me sometimes wishes I could so that I would be free to have all the adventures that I want. I want to die with the wind in my hair! [And it just doesn't look as good, buried beneath a helmet.] Am I obligated to take care of myself for my parents' sake?"
Yes, because at 20 you don't seem to have the wisdom to imagine a future and to imagine doing anything that matters to the world. At this point you are unbelievably self-centered, and the ultimate quality life is led by being others-centered. So if accepting a moral responsibility for the desolate pain you would cause your parents would keep you in the interim between now and your maturity from dying, I'd vote for it.
I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Until next time on our YouTube channel.
