Thanks for the Braces, Ma.

Yesterday my middle daughter Norah got braces. And I know this doesn’t sound all that significant, although anyone who has gotten braces I know for a fact can remember clearly the day you came home with those suckers, and couldn’t eat anything solid. But the significant part, at least for me as a father, was when Mel showed me the bill.

We have three kids, and all three of them have needed braces, and when I looked at the several thousand dollars it cost to put that metal in Norah’s mouth, and then multiplied that number by 3, I felt a wave of sticker shock, and immediately thought of my mother.

(If you find value in these emails, I hope you will consider becoming a paid subscriber for only $5 a month. Paid subscribers get access to all archived newsletters along with an additional newsletter each week.)