Hi everyone,
I've been thinking a lot about family this week, the way we do when it's holiday season. For many of us, holidays mean heading home, to where we grew up, to where our family remained while we went and made lives elsewhere.
I wrote about this for Human Events and you can check it out here. It's an idea I've had for a while, this way that we in the coastal class treat our children and their potential. The idea is that we jettison them to go make better lives for themselves following their dreams, but the real dream just may be having a close family that can help support those dreams.
I used to always hate the holiday season, leading up to Halloween and through New Years. There was so much pressure to follow through, to not suck, from getting the bags of Halloween candy, putting up a candle-lit pumpkin so kids know to knock up and sing-sing "trick or treat." Into Thanksgiving, and those weeks before Christmas when you hope you get holiday party invitations then agonize over whether or not to go, and what to wear.
Then a few years ago my brother and I concocted a scheme where we would go out to dinner. No turkey, no big pressure, no need to make sure you bake the perfect yams, or don't step on toes by bringing a dish that it someone else's classic. Then, and this is huge, we moved from NYC, where kids get off every holiday for every culture in the world, just about, and landed in a place where kids get the whole week off for Thanksgiving.
Now we get to drive around where I grew up and say hi to everyone. And I suppose I have softened too, I realize there's no time for anything but the joy you have with people who love you. Nothing else really matters. So remember that when all the magazines tell you to confront your family over their political views this year. Just hug them instead.
Libby