Beach Reading

7 Mile Beach, Avalon NJ

While vacationing with my parents this past week, I managed to finish three books in the course of long days at the beach. Without any earlier notion that this would be the case, I found that each touched on the theme of family in a unique way:

• "The Shack" by William Young tells the story of a grieving father's reconciliation with God, and later his family, after a tragic accident.
• "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz chronicles the triumphs, tragedies, brokenness, tough love, and perseverance of members of a Dominican family through time spent in the Dominican Republic and in northern New Jersey.
• "Tattoos on the Heart" by Greg Boyle SJ presents, in a series of flowing vignettes, a Jesuit's ministry with gang members and their families in Los Angeles.

A week (sometimes more) at the Shore with my family is an annual event that I've enjoyed for as long as I can remember, and I always get a little sad when we finish cleaning the house, pack up the car, and drive west across the bay and the marshes back to the mainland. In the past several months, I've found myself noticing my distance from my family– something I knew would be a part of Jesuit life, being sent far from home for various assignments– more palpably. Older cousins are having children, a long-widowed uncle remarried, gatherings of relatives living in South Jersey occur regularly while I carry out my mission and live with my community in New England. Barring any unforeseen plans, I won't be back "home" until Thanksgiving. Sitting on the beach, reading about families and situations quite different than my own, reminded me of the treasure I've been given in my own family, and invited me to strive to more deliberately and regularly give thanks to (and for) them.