Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Thought for the Day: What Family Is

It never takes longer than a few minutes, whenever they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That’s what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts.

Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (NY: Harper, 2007), p. 309.