American families !
Americans ! The more I come in touch with them and get to know about their families, the more it puzzles me. And most of the time, I get to know those people through the common passion - motorcycles.
Take the case of one guy, barely 5 years older than me, has a family tree that takes at least a few minutes to visualize for an average Indian like me. His wife’s dad and mom divorced and remarried. The fun part now is the two families are like the best friends, they go camping and partying with each other and dines together. The guy’s real dad separated from his real mom and lives 100 miles away. Real mom and step dad lives 30 miles away and takes care of the guy’s niece whose mom doesn’t look after her kid. The kid’s gradparents are adopting her and eventually the guy and his wife will take care of her. The kid’s mom is step dad’s daughter from his previous marriage, and might get a divorce from her alcoholic husband in near future.
Back home we just can’t imagine a family mesh like this. But this is a foreign land with a different cultural setup and one can’t say “mo betta”, because every societal system and their rules have advantages and pitfalls.
December 8th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Except for one BIG difference of this being an individualistic society and ours being collective, I do not see much difference here when it comes to family values. Actually, I have been surprised often by the existence of family ties for an average American person ( much against my stereotypical image of an American as a self-centered, materialistic, no family value hippie). Maybe it is becuase I am in Texas!!
Anyway, I was checking out to see if u had moved ahead with ur THE PLAN.. so that I could see if I can plan along( thought the 22 temp almost froze me today)