Opinion

These two emails arrived hours apart from one another. I put the pieces together and contacted the emailers. It turns out that it’s the same people writing about the same issue. This is a first time something like this has happened to me. I had a long email communication with “Chani” and her friend “Shayna.” There is no right answer here. It’s part of the struggle we all live with, living our own lives and still fulfilling the mitzvah of kibud av.

It can be hard when someone new comes into your life, because if you hope to have a future with him or her, you will have to make some major adjustments in your life, as will the other person make changes for you. You need to decide if changing your routine and the way you “like things” is worth this new relationship and the future it may afford you.

Dear Goldy:

 I’ve been dating my boyfriend for a long time. The only problem I have is with his sister. She is such a negative, evil person. Yes, I wrote evil. She never has a nice word to say about anything or anyone – not about a simchah someone made, what someone wore any day of the week, good news she would hear about someone, etc. She constantly speaks badly of people. She doesn’t just talk about people; she’s vicious when she speaks about them. And, of course, she is two-faced, because out in public she is smiling and nice to everyone. I can’t stand it. I can’t be around someone like that.

I like to publish articles where I see a theme trending. As we all know, trends fade and then come back into style again. I see this theme pop up especially during the summer, or at least the past five summers.

As soon as I read this email, I knew I would be using it in the column. I contacted the emailer right away. This email is me and I am this email. The same thing happened to me, sort of.

I’m here to help as best as I can, but sometimes I receive an email and think that the question or scenario given is made up. Maybe some of you are trying to see if I’ll take the bait and answer – and then want to see what I respond to these crazy questions just to have a laugh at my expense. I do my best to read through the emails received and decide which to respond to. Usually, if I see a few emails with the same theme, I’ll choose that, seeing that the topic is trending. Sometimes I will see an out-there type of question that I will take a chance and respond to – I have even written that I hope these letters are authentic but can’t be sure. Here are some emails with questions that I don’t think are authentic. If I am wrong, I apologize to the sender and please email the question again. But sometimes some of these questions just scream out at me, “You’re being punk’d.”