The Family Is Changing Not Disappearing. We

The Capacity To Combine Commitment With Skepticism Is Essential To Democracy.

When Parents Die, All Of The Partings Of The Past Are Reevoked With The Realization That This Time They Will Not Return.

Orthodox Judaism Is A Thicket Of Detailed Injunctions, Biblical Commandments Elaborated During Centuries Of Prohibited Proselytizing, Functioning To Limit Interaction With Outsiders. At The Opposite Extreme, Islam, Still The Most Rapidly Expanding Of Faiths, Demands Little Immediate Knowledge From Those Who Would Convert. The Convert Is Permitted To Enter And Then To Learn By Participation, Although There Are Plenty Of Detailed Regulations And Abstruse Theological Ideas To Be Pursued Later, And The Regulations Do Effectively Separate Believers From Nonbelievers.

Wherever A Story Comes From, Whether It Is A Familiar Myth Or A Private Memory, The Retelling Exemplifies The Making Of A Connection From One Pattern To Another: A Potential Translation In Which Narrative Becomes Parable And The Once Upon A Time Comes To Stand For Some Renascent Truth. This Approach Applies To All The Incidents Of Everyday Life: The Phrase In The Newspaper, The Endearing Or Infuriating Game Of A Toddler, The Misunderstanding At The Office. Our Species Thinks In Metaphors And Learns Through Stories.

The Timing Of Death, Like The Ending Of A Story, Gives A Changed Meaning To What Preceded It.