"...I see it as a parable of our time; his journey is part of the larger one I'm writing about. It is a story about finding your place in the universe. Not just the one out there, but the one in your home, your family, your community, and your world. By no small measure, my son's story (and in large part each of our stories) reflects how, when untethered from a larger familial purpose, we can become dangerously unmoored, floating precipitously from one external referent to another in search of self."
-- Harriet Fasenfest - A Householder's Guide to the Universe --as she ponders the significance of familial purpose or lack thereof on our quality of life for both her son and the rest of us.
(emphasis mine)
Have you ever thought about "familial purpose"? Superman and I have been thinking a lot about it this past year (just not with that phrase). Do we have a larger familial purpose? What is our family's larger goal? Why do so many families seem to fracture, often before the children are raised? Are we working together and engaging in "parallel work"? What is the real reason we do all that we do? These are just some of the things we spend time thinking about. What about you? Have you ever actually tried to quantify your larger familial purpose? Does the idea strike a chord in you?
Happy thinking...
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