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Unread 11-28-2009, 12:07 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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Doesn't Larkin pretty much let parents off the hook in the second line, by saying that the damage is inevitable, regardless of good or ill intent?

I've always read the final line as looking backwards at the previous generation with sympathy and understanding--a variation on the "Judge not, lest ye be judged" motif--rather than a serious prescription for the future. (Even if Larkin does seem to have taken his own advice.)
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