She kindly explains: “Lauren said this is a way of saying a curse word. Is it?” My eyes rolled back in their sockets and saw two words branded into my brain matter: A curse word and “Lauren.”

With eyes back in place and focused on the pink-polished finger, I somehow resisted the need to speak in tongues. I calmly uttered, “Lauren really shouldn’t show you something like that. Please don’t listen to everything she says. Now, hop in the bath.”

I am mad.  I am sad. I’m mad at Lauren. I’m sad for my little one.

I want to call the mother of Little Miss Show and Tell and ask her to teach her child to keep her fingers to herself. I’m just not sure I have the nerve to open up that Pandora’s Box.

Why is naiveté so short-lived?

“How Will I Know?” takes me immediately back to the summer we donned colorful make-up and scarves in our hair, popping back and forth trying to string together, “How will I know if he’s thinking of me? I try to phone but I’m too shy (can’t speak).” Pitch perfect, regrettably not.

My most painful break-up was accompanied by “I Will Always Love You.” Whitney sang, “So, goodbye. Please, don’t cry. We both know I’m not what you, you need.”

He said, “So, goodbye. Please don’t cry, again. I know you are not what I need.”

Music memories are inescapable.

It is unlikely you don’t know a family challenged by autism today.

It is also unlikely you don’t know a family not advocating on behalf of their autistic child and loving that child unconditionally while working through the day-to-day challenges of autism.

People like Tony Humphreys are shameless self-promoters. Perhaps his parents were cold toward him.

My nephew is ten, handsome, popular in that football-playing kind of way, kindhearted, and funny. As the eldest of seven grandchildren he is revered by his cousins, from my six year old to the six month old. So you can imagine my shock to learn that he has been bullied so badly over the last two weeks that he was developed a noticeable tic in his eyes.

The bullying is vitriolic in its tone and intent: “I am going to kill you,” the bully has told him.

Bullying in American schools has received a lot of attention in the last two years. Of course, it has been going on for as long as anyone remembers. Unfortunately, the days when our parents could wait at the school gate and give the bully a verbal licking are over. Unfortunately.

In sharing our personal stories of being bullied, the conversation often ended with, “Well, he must feel pretty badly about himself of he needs to verbally and physically assault another kid.”

Actually – he doesn’t feel badly about himself at all. A recent study reverses the long-held notion that bullies have low self-esteem, and that they put down others to feel better about themselves. According to an expert on bullying, Dr. Claudio Cerullo, bullies usually have a strong sense of entitlement and superiority over others, and lack compassion, impulse control and social skills.

New Jersey’s recently enacted “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights” requires officials in every public school in the state to designate an anti-bullying specialist and a safety team to review complaints, file reports to a district anti-bullying coordinator, and investigate allegations of bullying within one school day.

We will see what this week brings. It may bring me to the school gate echoing my Mother’s question, “Where is he?”