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Here is a narrative of a relationship event:

"My teen-age son was moody and recalcitrant. Didn't want to do anything, relate to anyone in the family. Having accepted that this was going to be a rough period in the relationship, I came home one night prepared to give guidelines and demand that they be followed. Instead of the moody, recalcitrant adolescent I left that morning, I found a happy, cheerful teen-ager.

I also found myself slightly depressed. Here, just when I thought I had it all figured out, my son wasn't the person I had prepared for. My expectations that the relationship was consistent, and that I could control it, had been violated.

Within about 50 words, try to relate this story to "ways of knowing." What kinds of knowing are involved? Are these means of knowing consistent, should they be, over time? Or do they vary as we vary?

Jeanne.

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