The Family Business - Essay Example

However, growing up, my legs seemed to straighten out while my hair finally flattened out. However, this only preceded my puberty struggles with acne and braces. This period also marked a growing bond between my father and me as he taught me the power of words and how to use words to break barriers. It also marked my increased appreciation of family. My father was especially fond of what he liked to refer to as “a family night”, which was a monthly ritual where, as family members, we came together for various activities.

It involved family councils that involved everyone speaking out their mind, and we believed that all we did and said really mattered and would result in actions. This would be followed by the board or card games that my father would use to incorporate moral lessons and the value of family. This would give way to song and inspired dance, which was interspersed with stories from my elder brother who was quite the master storyteller. Ice cream, of course, was never far off, and it was probably the only way to keep my younger sister interested.

As the fifth child and second son in a family of eight children, these family nights were quite the event; rarely did any pass without some form of event. These varied from straight out fights, hair pulling, and a number of fistfights between my older brother and me. One evening, my mother insisted that we all sat down and watched Sound of Music, which I found quite long. In the end, she asked us if we had seen any similarities between the Vontrap family and our family. Seething from an earlier altercation with my brother, I replied that the eldest son did not seem to have a girlfriend.

This resulted in a fight that my family enjoyed greatly except, of course, for my mother who was horrified. While everyone else seemed to have positive things to say about the movie, I had only seen a nun and children. It is only years later that I realized why my mother had insisted that we watch the movie, as well as the lesson she was trying to teach us. Growing up, my mother had to work long hours usually left us in the care of our elder siblings. This normally resulted in numerous fights, which ended up hurting my mother very much.

She had wanted us to see that siblings should stick together through thick and thin and that we were all expected to get along. In addition, our father was home most of the time as he worked from home and we had given him a lot of problems growing up. He never complained, however, and was always smiling. In fact, he had wrinkles at the corners of his eyes from his smiling. The movie took a sympathetic view of a father left, with many children, to look after; I fail to remember how many children the Captain had.

Thinking back, I wish I had given my father the peace he so craved, but being me, I always pestered him and never gave him a chance to rest. One July morning, when the dew was still nestling on the garden leaves, my father took me out into the woods and sat me on a dead log. Slowly, he pulled out a cotton handkerchief from his pocket and unfolded it.