Article November 23, 2020 ISSUE

Estranged from family? Don’t give up.

Kelly Michaels

In an article in The Christian Science Monitor, a researcher was quoted as saying, “. . . about a quarter of adult Americans have an active estrangement with a relative” (Stephen Humphries, “Another effect of the coronavirus crisis: Forgiveness,” May 5, 2020). The article went on to report a trend of reconciliations during the pandemic.

There are probably as many reasons for estrangements as there are families, and some of these reasons may be especially serious. But one recently identified common denominator mentioned in the Monitor article stood out to me: estrangement being viewed by some as a type of courage—cutting the people out of your life who don’t “promote personal happiness.”

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