What Rosie O'Donnell is Teaching Her Children

People exhibit negative and positive sides. So much has been overstated, ad nauseum, about Rosie O'Donnell's alleged shortcomings. Let's consider where and how she radiates light and understanding. Here is a summary of her uplifting traits:

Rosie O'Donnell, through direct instruction or simply via her daily interactions in the world, is ensuring that her children learn these lessons:

(1) To see a person beyond qualifiers such as age, race, religion, gender, sex preference, economic class. Rosie has opened her heart, not just her mouth. She has emphasized repeatedly her empathy for the lower classes worldwide, and never forgets the economic struggles that she herself succeeded in overcoming.

(2) To volunteer time and money: Whether it involves wounded soldiers who have returned from Iraq, or Katrina relief funds, to name just two, Rosie shows a pattern of charity. Reportedly she has instructed her attorneys to ensure she will never top the list of the world's richest celebrities. Her aim is to share.

(3) To appreciate nature: Whether admiring the ocean, or nurturing the squirrel who inhabits her yard, she, Kelli, and children, Parker, Chelsea, Blake, and Vivi, enjoy the natural wonders of life: individually or together walking, swimming, or even just laying on the pier staring into the water.

(4) To be prudent with money. Rosie has the means to buy almost every product on the Internet. Yet she instructs her youngest child, Vivi, that the child may choose only one new pair of shoes from a popular site. I once e-mailed Rosie to ask, out of curiosity, if $100 still seemed a great deal of money to her, and she answered that yes, it still did. A sensible practicality is deeply ingrained in her.

(5) To know that creativity is more important than possessions. She let her children paint her Emmy statues. Whereas another type of parent might have been horrified and resentful, Rosie welcomed the children's colorful expressionism. Whimsy and playfulness invigorate the spirit, in Rosie's world.