To the Ancestral Homeland

Here, my beloved son, is where your parents toiled mightily in the century now past.  In these last few weeks before the blossom of your independent life unfolds, it is necessary for you to be a pilgrim here to understand who we are and what we did. 

For this is a place of dreams, of tears, of hopes and the dashing of hopes.  A place of laughter and those awkward silent pauses where you were hoping laughter would be.  A place where you must not neglect, my son, to get the parking ticket validated.  And I swear to you, as God is my witness, ( ... )