This stuff is hard.

Paris went to sleep away camp last summer. It was her third year and she referred to this camp as "the best part of my summer." Dave and I were thrilled she'd found a Jewish home away from home.

Sadly, last year's summer camp experience was not good. I blame the camp primarily for this. Two girls, who get along like oil and water, ended up in her cabin, in spite of the fact that their parents always write letters asking for them to be separated. This error divided the cabin into two warring factions.

I don't know exactly what happened because I wasn't there. What I heard was second-hand. But eight months later I'm still bothered by it, primarily because Paris was saddened by one of her friends turning into a Part Time Friend (this is a Girls' Leadership term) during this experience, and the friend's mother and I have been close for more than 30 years.

My friend and I had lunch yesterday. Before GLI I would never have brought this up. But this still felt like an elephant in the room to me. And now I had some tools to deal with it.

I started by saying: I should have brought this up sooner. I really should have brought it up sooner but I didn't know what to say and yesterday I still didn't know what to say except that it bothered me. My friend is a smart girl and we talked through it. Our daughters may never be close friends again but we will.