Monday, July 22, 2013

Monday morsel: family

I've been reading Elizabeth Strout's new novel The Burgess Boys lately (Strout is one of my favourite novelists; she wrote Abide With Me, Amy and Isabelle, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge).

I liked the simple wisdom in this scene where two brothers, one divorced and one recently separated, are driving to their hometown in Maine.  The recently separated brother laments,

"What am I going to do, Bob? I have no family."

"You have family," Bob said. "You have a wife who hates you. Kids who are furious with you. A brother and sister who make you insane. And a nephew who used to be kind of a drip but apparently is not so much of a drip now. That's called family."



5 comments:

  1. Yep, we've all got family!

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    1. Yeah ... talk about a glass-half-full perspective. :-)

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  2. Jeannie, A while back my sister had to pull over the car because my niece was fighting with her imaginary friend in the back seat. She's an only child. This made me think about how it's nice to have an actual person to fight with sometimes. :) Family is indeed a blessing!

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    1. That's hilarious, Adriana!!

      Speaking of family, my friend Kathryn is always posting her son's comments on Facebook -- I think he is about 4. He is SO funny. Here is his latest bedtime prayer. "Dear God, I wish I was the only one in my house. I wish my mom was gone, my dad was gone, E. was gone, and S. was gone. But... then I would get lonely without my family. But that's what friends are for, right, God? In Jesus' name, Amen."

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