The Family Tree Goes Up And Down
Our daughter asked whether we’ll die. Disney seems to kill most parents within five minutes so it’s a relevant question. I said yes, but not for a long long long time. Then she asked the more relevant question.
“Will I be alone?”
I had to think about this. This is also the central Disney horror. The child alone. It is what monsters do, what America does. Separate children from parents. It is the most immediate and urgent fear.
Like most kids' questions, I’m making this up on the spot. I fast forward in my mind to when she is older, old like me. A-ha!
“When you’re older, you and your brother will have children. And the tree will go like this.”
I flay out my hands, like the branches of a tree.
“I’ll have my babies, and thambi’s babies,” she says.
Yes, I say. If you want to.
The family tree, I tell her, goes up and down. Its roots are your parents and grandparents, and they carry you up to the sun. Eventually, the branches outnumber the roots, as funerals begin to outnumber weddings. Time passes, the earth rises; branches become roots. Roots become earth. The family expands and contracts, watered by tears and years, each…
