We’re creating a different kind of family tree: a philosophical one, made of ideas, thoughts, beliefs; accepted, rejected, swallowed whole, discarded, maintained, nourished and destroyed.

Of love found, simmering hatreds, adoration, ancient feuds, hidden desires, religious wars, long buried resentments, deep seated enmities, loyalty, transcendence, harsh disappointment, disillusionment and hope.

We’re all made up of philosophical family trees with ideas dangling off the branches. Call it a Thought Tree, an Idea Tree, a Dreams Lost And Found Tree. The beliefs of my ancestors are intriguing to me. The good ideas. The bad ideas. How they lived and what traces are left in the family I knew growing up. What vestiges of these ideas are still running through the laws and minds of our country creating the context of our current version of America.