The big Table

by: | Complete Story | Last updated Jun 19, 2009

Sometimes our family eats out in Chinatown. We are a traditional kind of family and often we have four generations represented at the big round table. American passers-by also like the restaurant, though are justly less complimentary about the bathroom. Sometimes I notice that there is an interest, almost a yearning to be part of our table, as if it has something different from the individualism so prized on Wall Street. It is different, but comes with a price of obligation and deference to the group. The obligations differ for gramma or our new grandson. In the middle are people like me, and our children, mostly in their twenties, and now the first of the new generation. (He's nearly one and we love him to bits.) So, being in the story