Hillbilly Elegy

I had no way out. When the therapist
asked me what I’d do, I replied that I
would probably go live with my dad.
She said that this sounded like a good
idea. When I walked out of her office, I
thanked her for her time and knew that
I’d never see her again.
Mom had a massive blind spot in the
way that she perceived the world. That
she would ask me to move with her to
Dayton, that she seemed genuinely
surprised by my resistance, and that she
would subject me to such a one-sided
introduction to a therapist meant that
Mom didn’t understand something about
the way that Lindsay and I ticked.
Lindsay once told me, “Mom just