Short letters, written to the person in the middle.

In plain terms: this is a short email from Reno Smith, who writes the books on this site. The first few arrive about a week apart, then less often. Each one is about the conversations that run up and down a family — children or grandchildren on one side, your own parents on the other, and your own load carried in between — and sometimes about a book that helps with one of them. That is the whole of it.

We call them letters rather than a newsletter, because that is closer to what they are.

Here is what you can expect.

The first letter explains who we are and how your address reached us, and gives you a plain way out if you would rather not be here. After that, letters arrive one at a time. Some are about the conversation with the young — money, character, courage. Some are about the harder one with the old. A few I hope are simply worth reading.

The first few arrive about a week apart, so you get a sense of what this is. After that they come less often, and only when there is something worth sending. You will not be sent a discount code every week, and there is no schedule you are expected to keep up with. If it stops being worth your time, one click ends it.