The Glass family

File this under you can’t pick your family, you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your friend’s or family’s nose…

I did, though, pick my family when I was a kid. My father was orphaned at age 3, and got passed around from relative to relative when he was a kid. He raised his kids the only way he knew how: to be orphans. Both my parents died about 25 years ago, I have a sister I haven’t seen since I was around 12, and my other sister and I haven’t spoken in years.

But when I was a kid, I fantasized about being a member of the Glass family. Lit fans might immediately know who I’m talking about: the family J.D. Salinger wrote about in books like Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters, and Nine Stories. As a matter of fact, I longed for a sister like Franny, smart, funny, pretty, and easily saw myself a combination of actor Zooey and writer Buddy.

Weird, but family’s can give us the biggest heartbreaks, and I guess when I was little I figured it was just easier and smarter to make my own.