by Louise Christensen

Created on: October 26, 2009

There are few people in life who don't do something foolish at least once; for most of us it can be far more than one time. Those acts of foolishness burn in our memories and act as a red flag to warn of us of dangerous situations that could result in more folly. Most acts of foolishness occur in youth. Failure to head the words of wisdom imparted by our elders can lead us into dreadful places that can mark some for life. Simply thinking about some of the events can bring a blush to the face of those most deeply effected by their behavior.

It wasn't that many decades ago that foolish behavior in youth could and did ruin their lives. In the light of more modern thinking the behavior is pretty much ignored by everyone concerned and by some standards - rewarded. Look at the situation of the unwed mother. Until the mid-sixties or so a teenage pregnancy was considered a shameful situation. Most of the young people were forced into marriage. Those girls who were unfortunate enough to have their lover run and hide were forced to give up their babies. Homes for the unwed mother were secreted all around the country and the more fortunate were shipped overseas to "holiday" with family. When welfare became the panacea for the disenfranchised single mother abandoned by her husband, teenage mothers jumped on the bandwagon too. Forty years later it is not considered a problem for an adolescent to get pregnant; in some situations it is a rite of passage.

So what about those hapless folks who continue to commit grievances long after the bloom of youth has faded? For some of them it could be a failure to mature; for others it might appear to be a genetic defect. Some people may fall into the fool category initially, but then they segue into the addiction category and the rules change. Correspondingly some people are called fools when they were always addicts by virtue of genetic dependence and others by learned behavior. The term addictive personality is a fairly recent manifestation in the world of mental and medical health arenas - and it is carefully justified by years of research and treatment of the afflicted. To label the addict as a fool - would in some circles - be foolish. Even though addictions can cause as much devastation in the lives of the burdened, now they at least have an excuse for their behavior; however foolishly it may have started.

There are probably a large number of people who learned foolish behavior at the knees of their parents. These behaviors could

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