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Family ties
One interesting aspect of my time at The Shelter Institute is the way that the whole business is a family affair. The Shelter Institute was founded by Pat and Patsy Hennin in 1974. Now, their three children--in their 20s and 30s--all live within a few miles of each other and work as part of the family business, building houses with Hennin Post and Beam and teaching classes at The Shelter Institute. I think all of us recognize just how rare this is in today's world. Certainly, the Hennins do!
I was talking to Pat while I was in Maine and he told the story of how in the late 80s, while their oldest son was at Harvard and their second son was either in Tufts or heading there soon, he and his wife planned on selling the business, selling the house, and "living in our boat" to put the kids through college and go into a sort of retirement. Evidently, their oldest son got wind of this and said "You can't sell the business--I'm going to graduate and come back to run it!" In today's world, it's natural enough to expect one's kids to go off to college and then go off to... wherever and get a job and start a family. It's not at all unusual to see an American family spread to the four corners of the country. Instead, Pat Hennin has his children not only return to the area in which they grew up, but also work together to keep the family business going. From two weeks' observation, it seems clear that they are wonderful individuals and a wonderful family, fortunate to have one another.
My own family is quite spread out. My immediate family, of course, is just myself and my mother, and we are quite a distance apart (RI to OH). My father's family, of which still living are 2 sisters and a brother, are spread out with one in Ohio and two in Texas (Houston and San Antonio--not really close). My aunt in Ohio is at least fortunate to have most of her family still in Ohio and much of the family isn't too far apart, with one son living in the house where she was born and one of that son's sons living in what used to be my aunt's house for much of my childhood. These are the relatives I spend the major holidays with. My mother's family is spread out as well. She's in Ohio, her mother is in Memphis, two of her sisters are also in Memphis (one only recently moved there), one sister is in Jackson, MS, another is in western Kentucky, and her brother is in Texas. As much as the family is somewhat spread out (especially us, the "yankee relatives"), the majority of us--down to 2nd cousins--see one another once a year (and the more southerly relatives see one another more often). For my part, though it's fine now to be so far from my family, I think if/when I start to raise my own family, I would like to have my mother closer to be part of the lives of any children I would have. There's a great value in that sort of closeness, physical just as much as emotional. I don't know exactly what that will mean--it could mean moving to Ohio, it could mean her moving to New England, it could mean something else entirely (by then she may have decided to move closer to her family).