In the early 70s, the “Joy of Sex” was published, and like most moms, I bought it and then promptly hid it in my closet so my children wouldn’t see it. Today, I get the local papers and promptly hide them in the closet so my grandchildren won’t see them. After all, in the past few months their old Granny has been called a suicide bomber, a terrorist, a committer of atrocities and, perhaps worst of all, a friend of Lloyd Ahern’s (I guess Lloyd outranks Saddam Hussein) What grandmother in her right mind would want her grandchildren exposed to such soul withering rhetoric? But then I remembered the day I found my children carefully studying “The Joy of Sex.” With no apologies for rummaging through my closet, they looked at me with sadness. “You shouldn’t feel ashamed, Mom. Sex is a beautiful, natural, human instinct. It’s how we show our love for each other.” So I’ve decided to leave the papers out for my grandchildren to read, hoping they can teach me the same thing about Malibu politics.
Sharon Barovsky