Family Ties

September 10, 1996

I ran into my cousin Richard at Starbucks this afternoon. Funny, last weekend at the Bobby-home-from-Bosnia fest was the first time I had seen Richard in years. Then, so soon again. Weird. Next I'll be running into him in the supermarket checkout line, the post office, you name it.

Why am I surprised? I shouldn't be. My world is crawling with family. Lousy with it to use an earthy metaphor. Family is part of the ether in which I swim. Unlike most of the people I've worked with over the years in high-tech, I did not move thousands of miles from home either to go to college or to find the job of my dreams in my alleged field. In those days, Massachusetts was a hotbed of computer jobs. Maynard was the mini-computer capital of the world (so it said on the sign as you entered on Rt. 117 - long gone now). Rt. 128. The Greater Maynard Area. Cambridge. All centers of technology. The old days.

Anyway, back to my subject. I swim in the same waters as my family. I run into Donald & Michael at CVS. I used to run into Thomas & Steve at Pride. I run into Billy at the Burlington Mall. And wherever I go, if the discussion is related to world hunger, politics, racism, homelessness, or peace I meet people who know my mother. I can't hide. I don't have the luxury of reinventing myself some other place and playing my old self at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I get to reinvent myself right before the very eyes of all concerned.

And I do reinvent myself. Constantly.

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