Is Holiday Travel Worth It?Posted by admin on November 30th, 2009

Call me idealistic or old-fashioned. When I think of Christmas, I think of gathering with my family in our living room around a well-lit tree to open presents. Having Christmas at a cabin or in a hotel room just does not sound like Christmas at all. And yet I hear of families who travel to Paris or a tropical resort to celebrate the holidays. Instead of gathering around the family dinner table, they go to a restaurant somewhere. While the thought of warmer weather does sound nice, celebrating anywhere but at home does not sound like Christmas.

Take make matters worse, this usually requires holiday travel. If it requires flying, they are in for a hearty dose of lines, delays, and stress- enough to dampen even the most robust holiday spirit. 

So what do you think? Are you okay with travelling to exotic locales to celebrate the holidays? Or would you rather just stay put at home sweet home with your loved ones and a roaring fire?

.



Filed under: Current events, entertainment | No Comments

The Road a Tribute to Family BondsPosted by admin on November 22nd, 2009

Cormac McCarthy’s haunting novel The Road gets the Hollywood treatment this week. For those unfamiliar with the Pulitzer-prize winner and Oprah’s Book Club selection (don’t hold that against it), it tells the story of a father and son roaming the remains of North America after an unexplained cataclysm turns everything to sooty ash. The story is as grin as it sounds and then some. Some of the material is hard to stomach but this isn’t Mad Max or Terminator. At its beating heart, this is a story about the sustaining power of love, especially the love of parent and child.

The film, starring Viggo Mortensen and Robert Duvall, has earned an R rating, likely because its depictions of cannibalism, which is constantly looming presence in the book. This may turn off many viewers and it’s a shame really. Nothing in the book warranted a R; even the most gruesome details were only fleetingly mentioned. Unfortunately, this means many parents will not watch this film with their children. Fortunately, there is always the book. And, as everyone says, the book is usually better than the movie.

I give The Road my highest recommendation. The prose is incredible. The arc of the relationship between the Man and the Boy is both epic and incredibly intimate. More importantly, The Road places family at the very center of man’s survival. It highlights the co-dependent relationship between parent and child- child needs parent for physical succor, but parent needs child for salvation. This book easily made my top 5 of all time list.

So, if you’re willing to brave the R rating, the story and the essence may still be intact, but visually you may get more than you bargained for. If you’d rather just read the book, I guarantee you a beautiful, sobering, exciting, and thought-provoking read.



Filed under: Current events, entertainment | No Comments

Family History Tourism?Posted by admin on November 21st, 2009

I met a couple last night who, upon the discovering the names and vital information for their ancestors in England, took a summer vacation to the actual parish from whence the records came. They visited the church that had held the records for centuries. They walked the cobbled streets that had likely felt the soles of their ancestors almost every day for the length of their mortal life. They insisted that this experience had done more for their understanding of their forebears than any record ever could. This got me thinking about the usefulness of family history tourism.

There seem to be a lot of things we can get out of visiting places that we just can’t get from reading their vital dates. A few summers ago, I took my family to Hawaii to the North Shore that had been home to my family since the 1800s. The people I met all had something to say about my forebears. I walked in the place where my grandparents had been married. We drove past the sugar factory my grandfather built and managed. In the air, the trees, and in the water, I seemed to feel a kinship. 

I had heard all of these stories before, but being in the actual places made it real for me. Every place I went seemed to drive home the fact that my ancestors were real people, with real lives full of events large and small. 

So, what do you think? Is it worth the plane ticket to draw closer to your roots? Can you get that feeling of kinship in any other way?



Filed under: Family History | No Comments