What I'm Reading: Inheritance

This book is a bit special to me because seeing Dani at a book reading when this was released was a moment of happiness and a night I will always remember.  To have a partner who shares your interests and is happy and willing to go to the basement of a Brookline bookstore on a rainy night is a joy I longed for and have since received.

I also remember telling my dad about the book reading.  He loved to read and loved to watch authors on Charlie Rose.  When I told him about this he was so proud - I can see his lit up smile, his thinking, "that's my girl!"   He was so proud of me and amused by my Cambridge life and the way I was filling my free time.  Our interests so very much aligned! 

And how fitting that the book closes with a passage about her deceased father.  She's missing him - like we all do - and yet, her devout faith, in her case Judaism, in mine, Catholicism, grounds her.  She reflects, "there has rarely been a time during which I have not felt his presence and his absence.  I silently call to him, hineni, a Hebrew word.  Here I am."

Aside from the relationship with her father, Inheritance prompts reflection on themes of identity, purpose and ethics.  What is family and how is it defined.   Personally, I'm a disciple of Elizabeth Lessor on this question: "the problem with family is that we draw our circle too small."   Those I love are my family, some share my genes and some share pieces of my heart.