Read the Washington Post article, "How to Be Good," a review of Wendy Shalit's new book, Girls Gone Mild. I'm glad to see that young women are becoming more self-aware of the problems within our culture and the consequences of living according to warped cultural values. While I hope to see a strong trend among young women toward "traditional morality" and ethical living, even those who reject the harmful cultural values don't have a complete understanding of what "good" means, why being bad is harmful to their own souls and to others, and why it's good to be good. American culture is like a ship in a wind-tossed sea. We can see over the last several decades how the pendulum has swung from one movement to another, reacting against the one before. Within the Orthodox Church, however, a certain continuity has been maintained for 2,000 years. What young women in secular American culture are rediscovering, we have known since the beginning. Orthodoxy offers a holistic understanding of the self and life that can help young women live truly good lives for their own benefit and the benefit of their families.
Copyright © 2007 by Dana S. Kees. (Italian Girl Drawing Water, by William Adolphe Bouguereau, is in the public domain.)
