I did a silly thing, which was not actually so silly, in retrospect. Last night while my estranged daughter and I were chatting, I wrote out a family tree, and this morning she wrote me one out, on the French side. Stupidly, not knowing her, and wanting to know her, I immediately broke out with my Handbook of Graphology to attempt to build a psychological profile of the girl.
This is crazy. I am not a shrink. The best thing to do, in reflection, is to simply get to know the young lady, when she visits. Or just be friendly, and get to know her straight, without any kind of psychological case study (assuming graphology is even an effective means of knowing what someone is like - which I believe it can be, if done right). Besides, even the book I have on graphology (which is not actually that bad, and has a great little chapter on symbols and signs) is rather dated (like 73 years old now), so it is very much a product of its time. (Needless to say, if such a register were used in an academic essay today, usages like 'primitive' peoples or 'because the person draws he [or she] is quite obviously an imbecile or insane' it would not be taken seriously). Even so, it contains a good overview of the history of graphology, and also is quite straight forward.
Even so, getting to know my daughter should (indeed must) be done on an amicable basis, purely family, no ulterior motives or psychological case studies: but simply passing time together, father and daughter, getting more well acquainted with one another. It's a case of honesty, and me being there for her (as I have not been).
I was up much of last night penning a six paged letter to her, and almost posted it today, but I will have to write it again from scratch, and focus more on the family (her and I, and even her mother), be not so over the top, but write it as it should be: plain speaking but full of good will and pleasant, agreeable sentiment.
Max.
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