Reinventing Oneself
The more you try to be interested in other people, the more you find out about yourself.
-Thea Astley
This whole idea about a life spent tracing the roots of one's family has always nagged at me.
I married into a family that published a book about their immigrant grandmother coming to the US and creating the classic American Story:  Sacrificing & working hard for her family's future - Wanting a better way of life for her children.  Almost a cliche in modern terms, the fable about the american success story and upward mobility was true in their family.  My roots ran in a different way, a different direction.  Of course, my family members in my past wanted a better life for their children too.  It's just a different path.  One of a million immigrant paths taken, risked, lost, succeeded, or deadended...... each path with an original story.
While I wait for more information regarding my maternal grandfather, let me share a fascinating story from the NYTimes, about a man who reinvented himself, and created a world quite different from where he came from.
Sometimes I wonder.  I wonder about the choices my grandfather made, and what compelled him to make a new life, in a new world.
The Secret Life of a Society Maven