I apologize for this being late, long week

Jonathan Doron
Seminar in Composition
Dr. Adam Johns
October 21, 2008

One of the persistent themes which we have been discussing in class (particularly since reading of Bill McKibben’s “Enough”) has been the loss of a sense of community. Most would argue that in the United States today, goals have steered away from the old sense of community onto a much more individualistic point of view. Generally speaking, there are very few people who continue to consistently act in a way which focuses on the betterment of his or her community as opposed to those people who lead their lives more self-interested or to try to rise above the rest. Community is defined as, “a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.” (dictionary.com) According to this definition, couldn’t a family be defined as a small community? Much like the larger-scale sense of community, the average American family has drastically changed over the years as well.
Chris Ware makes this point a consistent theme in his book, “Jimmy Corrigan.” The book’s plot is largely consisted of a few generations of “Jimmy Corrigan’s” relationship with his mother/father. Throughout the first thirty or so, the eldest Jimmy’s mother consistently calls him over the telephone. This can be taken as proof that Jimmy and his mother probably live far away, considering that she has to call all the time instead of visiting him. In America today, you often see families being spread out throughout the country. For example, I have family in Virginia, California, and Florida. In the past, families used to stay close to each other and grow up together. You would often see grandparents living in the same house as their children; or several generations of a family showing up to Sunday mass together. Now, individuals within the family spread out and pursue their own goals, whether it’s to seek out riches or live in their dream home. This has taken away from people the core values that growing up as a family offers. Especially now, with divorce rates well above 50%, you often see children growing up several hours, or even plane flights away from one of their parents. The family community is steadily dwindling down to the point where your family is just there for Christmas dinner, and maybe sends you a check on your birthday.
One of the interesting points about the general changes in the concept of “family” is that the United States is much more guilty of it than most other countries. Both of my parents are immigrants from Chile so it’s not too rare for me to take a trip down to see the roughly 75% of my family that remains within ten miles of each other. Much unlike the families in the United States, families in other countries tend to remain much closer (physically) to each other, and tend to get together much more than they do here. It took twenty years in the United States for my parents to finally realize that my immediate family was steadily becoming more and more distant from my overseas relatives, so earlier this summer, they decided to move the entire family back to Chile. Now, instead of receiving phone calls from my grandparents a couple times a week, they get together for dinner several times a week and get to enjoy the pleasure of having the rest of the family nearby. Being the oldest child in my family and a college-bound student, unfortunately I don’t get to experience the joy of having my extended family around all the time like my younger sisters do. But then again, this also makes me a victim of the same tendencies that I’m criticizing in this paper.
In a nutshell, there’s a lot of valuable experience being lost due to the separation of families, and even if your mother calls as much as Jimmy Corrigan’s does, that doesn’t provide you with the family interactions that are extremely valuable in growing up as a child. I’m not saying that you should throw all your possessions into a box and fly overseas to get back together, but definitely cherish the moments you have as a family.