Family

Some interesting thoughts on family by Patricia Volk....

Family is what we first know of the world. Family is the world, your very own living microcosm of humanity, with its heros and victims and martyrs and failures, beauties and gamblers, hawks and lovers, cowards and fakes, dreamers and steamrollers, and the people who quietly get the job done. Every behavior in the world is there to watch at the dinner table. You study them. You learn. You see how they change and how they stay the same. But if you think you can really know them, you're missing the point. The point isn't how well you know somebody.

The point is this: In a family you don't come from nowhere. You enter the world already a part of something. The myths and behaviors are all there to model yourself on or against. It's through family you learn there are no limits on ideas. Knowing so much about them, how open-hearted can you bear to be? You were born with the chance to love them. You might as well. They're yours.