Writing

Author explores how individuals fill family roles
Beverly Tauke will be interviewed at reception tonight

By: Kelly Steuck - Published on Monday, October 4 in the Quad-City Times.

Have you ever thought about what role you play in your family?

Are you the hero, rescuer, over responsible one, over dependent one, scapegoat, helpless one, mascot-clown, surrogate parent or surrogate spouse? Are you happy in your role?

These are a few of the vital questions that Beverly Hubble Tauke prompts us to ask ourselves in the her book "Sins of the Family." She began promotiong the Oct. 1 release of her book Saturday in Iowa.

Today, Dave Jolly of Christian radio station WDLM in the Quad-Cities will interview Tauke at 7:40 a.m. Tonight she will be signing books at a reception held at Thunder Bay Grille on Brady Street in Davenport.

Tauke, the wife of former U.S. Rep. Tom Tauke of Iowa, previouly managaed media operations for U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Planning on only spending a year with the then newly appointed senator, Tauke was part of the Washington D.C. political scene for almost seven years.

In 1986, the 37-year-old expectant (and first time) mother decided to leave politics alone to her husband, who serves as executive vice president, public affairs and communications at Verizon Communications.

"I decided to drop the real hectic schedule," Tauke said.

Still in the Washington, D.C., area, Tauke now works in family counseling at Cornerstone Family Counseling in Fairfax, Va.

Though the book was just published in September, Tauke claims that "my own family actually launched production of this book in about 1847 when William F. ‘Billy' Hubble was born."

Hubble was a driver of four-horse logging wagons in a family held in esteem by medical doctors, scholars, and ministers. He also was a distant cousin to famous astronomer Edwin P. Hubble. A gifted horseman, Billy was better known for his alcoholism.

"Ironically," Tauke wrote, "I am greatly indebted to Billy. His legacy, I believe, resulted in an inexplicable strength and radar within me."

Finding skeletons in the closet, or bringing to light sins of our fathers, is something Tauke strongly advocates. Only then can we change family patterns that have been taught to us and end the ripple effect of negativity that has flowed down the genetic line, she said.

Tauke encourages readers to overcome their own trauma to succeed in life. She said that can be accomplished by realizing the sinds of our fathers, by defining the roles we play in our family and by reaching out to our own surrogate families. "Maybe people can ease their own suffering before it happens," she said.

In working to end our own negative family cycles, she cautioned about trying to change others and being overly patient. "Patience is just being passive. If you go along with it all the time, then you're part of the problem."

She also ties in a strong faith life to overcoming family sins. But Tauke said she is careful to keep the biblical references to a minimum so as not to discourage certain readers. "Wounded hearts come in all flavors," Tauke said when explaining her approach to non-religious readers.