Stories

We sat in my grandpa’s garage and talked. It was a horrible event -- my grandpa’s funeral. He’d held family dinners in that garage. There were so many people that they wouldn’t fit in the house, so he set up tables out where he usually parked the cars, where he fixed musical instruments and where he kept his golf clubs. He wanted all the family together all the time. And he held the family together, even toward the end when family was splitting apart (sometimes by distance and sometimes by resistance). In his death, Grandpa brought us all back. And in his garage after the celebration of his life, we had nothing to do, nowhere to go, no smart phones to steal each other’s attention ... We told stories about him, about our pasts, about anything. And we did it for hours. That’s everything to me. What’s everything to you?

Family walks

I love going to Disneyland with my family -- so much to see, so much to do. Sitting down with my family and watching TV or being together for our traditional viewing of “Miracle On 34th Street” on Thanksgiving night is always enjoyable. But when we go on our family walks -- with nowhere to go and nothing to pull our focus from each other -- I feel there’s nothing more satisfying. That’s everything to me. What’s everything to you?