Holy Family

  When a young person joins a religious order, his or her parents often have a sense of loss: they feel that they are having to give up their child; this child has declined to carry on their line; in a sense, this child has left their family. I’m pretty sure my parents felt...
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Back on the Chain Gang

  There’s an old fable in Japan titled Ubasuteyama, or “Throw-Away-Grandma Mountain.” There are two versions. The one I know best is as follows: There’s a mountain—Throw-Away-Grandma Mountain—where people from a nearby village abandon their aged parents when the parents can...
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