I want to emphasize again that I have been providing Notice and obtaining Pre-clearance from my mother for these posts. Her reaction has been notably positive — she has both laughed and requested written copies of the posts (which I choose to believe is so she can enjoy them again, as opposed to the creation of a formal written record against me).
That said, after listening to my third post, she also suggested that I might consider "taking a walk down by the water" today. Like many maternal statements with ambiguous intent, I have chosen to interpret this as both loving concern and a potential warning sign.
So in light of my mother's instructions, I am refraining from Policy commentary today and choosing instead to focus on the positive. That said, I did not think my mother would object to my introducing you to the Younger Generation, of which she is extremely proud.
(In fact, the role of Nice Aunt was developed largely in imitation of Nice Grandma, who remains firmly convinced that the Younger Generation is perfect in ways the Older Generation never quite managed to achieve.)
If you have been following these posts, you may have realized that I have one brother and three sisters who collectively created the Younger Generation, made up of two boys and four girls. I recognize that keeping track of this structure may require extensive notes and possibly visual aids, so after spending an entirely unreasonable amount of time considering the matter, I have developed an official collective term for the Organization's Younger Generation.
It sounds faintly glamorous and vaguely like a 1970s rock band, which feels appropriate given their increasing rebellions, internal power struggles, relationship choices that outside observers often consider alarming and, perhaps most notably, a complex and constantly shifting alliance structure that no member of the Older Generation can reliably decipher. LE JAM appears to have collectively concluded that operational secrecy serves everyone's interests.
If this sounds less like a rock band and more like an intelligence agency, that is not entirely unintentional.
But in keeping with my role as the Nice Aunt, I continue to maintain the dysfunctional cover under which LE JAM conducts its surprisingly sophisticated covert operations.
LE JAM is becoming an increasingly powerful force within the Organization. This power is generally used for positive ends, including increased openness, affection and adherence to politically correct language and behavior. It is also occasionally used for less constructive purposes, including the accumulation of expensive goods and the strategic manipulation of longstanding disputes through information obtained in violation of the Social Media Policy.