Nation and family …

… 'My Father Left Me Ireland' Book Review | National Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Such a link between father and nation might be obvious, but we live in a culture that labors to obscure it. The result is precisely the void Dougherty found himself compelled to fill, and not just because his father was absent. The Baby Boomers, the generation of Dougherty’s parents who have shaped our cultural self-understanding, sought a liberation from this kind of generational view of both families and nations. “At the spiritual level, this myth of liberation, a liberation already accomplished,” Dougherty argues, “made my generation into powerless narcissists. We who worshipped authenticity — being your true self — even as most of us accused ourselves, in our own hearts, of being frauds.”

It wasn't until he died, when I was 17, that I was officially informed that my Uncle Ray was in fact my father, though I had figured that out on my own long before and had kept it to myself. I was very fond of him, actually, but refused to attend his funeral, since I didn't want anyone think I cared.That remains one of my major regrets.