Happy 5th to Christopher and NR-Anna

[Handmaiden of Dog]

Maybe Steve encourages them to be dabblers so that they don't devote themselves to a single business and therefore turn work into an idol.  It would be easy to put your company ahead of Jesus and the family if you were striving to make it into a success.  Also, I suspect that Steve doesn't want any of his family to be too successful because that might cause them to be prideful AND try to pull away from Steve's firm leadership. 

 

I think it is going to be hard for Steve to age and lose both mental and physical abilities.  Up until now he has definitely been King of Maxhell.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Maybe Steve encourages them to be dabblers so that they don't devote themselves to a single business and therefore turn work into an idol.  It would be easy to put your company ahead of Jesus and the family if you were striving to make it into a success.  Also, I suspect that Steve doesn't want any of his family to be too successful because that might cause them to be prideful AND try to pull away from Steve's firm leadership. 

 

I think it is going to be hard for Steve to age and lose both mental and physical abilities.  Up until now he has definitely been King of Maxhell.

But he's not stupid and more than anyone he's aware people don't live forever...so where is the concern for what happens Post-Steve and Teri?

My most fervent hope is that my kids be equipped to make it in the world without me.  It's what I've been working for with everything I've tried to instill and teach their whole lives.  Of course I always want them to need me on some level.  For advice, for a laugh, baking their favorite treats, and when the world is shitty being able to bask in the attention of one of the few people who adore them and literally think they made the world a better place just by showing up.  My parents have been gone for over 20 years and I still miss that kind of thing every day.  Most of the time memories are enough, but on occasion the grief can feel fresh again and it sucks...the need to know you're the center of someone's universe never goes away and I'm sure I'll live with that until the day I die.

But I lost my parents when I was younger than 5 of the Maxwells but they left me with the skills to function.  I can provide for myself and my family and handle the myriad of grown up crap life consists of because while my parents loved me they let me leave the house.  They let me get an education.  To be honest I doubt my dad had a much more positive view about the world as a whole than Steve does.  In my dad's case it wasn't due to religious beliefs, just his view that with rare exceptions the world is made up of idiots.  But he didn't lock us away from the idiots...he taught us how to navigate the world and yes, work around them when you have to, because he didn't see removing oneself from society as an option.  

(And as much as we were loved neither of my parents would have been able to stand us and only us 24/7 and indefinitely...and my siblings and I are very close but I'm not sure I'd have seen my 10th birthday if we only had each other.   in our case familiarity would have bred contempt, and then some.)