Last week, I wanted to take a short break from the topics we’ve been discussing regularly—Iran, Gaza, Trump, and so on—and cast my sight close to home. As the domestic and global political landscapes shift, and some of my views shift along with them, I’ve found myself searching for patches of stability. What makes me what I am? What remains consistent and essential as chaos and uncertainty rearrange our social and political order?
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One answer to those questions has been family. I am blessed with five children and six grandchildren, and another on the way. I have been blessed with my wife, LaJuan, when the death of my second wife, Linda Datcher Loury, had me contemplating the possibility of old age without companionship.
With this in mind, I asked my son, Glenn Loury II, to join me for another of our occasional recorded conversations. Here, we explore how families grow and change, how the meaning of relationships—parents and children, partners, siblings—changes as time goes on. We discuss how our regular reading group with his brother Nehemiah helps us to keep Linda’s memory alive, our excitement about the upcoming birth of Nehemiah’s first child, our relationships with our partners, and how I’m dealing with my retirement from teaching. Readers of my memoir, Late Admissions, can view this episode as a kind of update to the story. And Glenn II is also a fantastic writer in his own right. I highly recommend picking up any (or all!) of his books, which you can find here.
I won’t say my relationships with my children have been easy. We are all still working together to repair issues that go back decades. But, my God, am I grateful that I have them around to remind me of what’s most important.
