"My mother didn’t so much teach me to question authority and conventional wisdom as just not teach me unquestioning obedience to them in the first place. And she taught me that it made sense to work things out for myself, and think about them, and wonder about them, and sometimes to look behind them or try to work them out from first principles. That’s one of many great debts I owe her."

Wow. What a wonderful thing to be able to say about a parent. I'm so glad you got that from your mother. (I got pretty much the exact opposite from mine; does yours want any really old daughters? :-))

"but I also feel like somewhere in the back of my head I’m trying to keep track of where the torches and the pitchforks are."

Yes, exactly. I've been trying to explain this feeling to relatives; yours is a good metaphor -- I think I'll steal it. :-)

Hugs,

Cory