If you're the oldest in a large family, you tend to do everything yourself, particularly if you are the first American. You begin a habit or pattern that makes it easy to reject other help.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When you're part of the first family, your life tends to get played out in front of the whole nation.
Being an American is a state of mind, and to be in a family is to feel the power of belonging, the power of your roots. Family is a tree, the strength of a tree, the roots, the leaves, the past and the present, the future, the fruits, the seeds.
By virtue of my traditions, and my community, I worked hard to ensure that I was accepted as part of the traditional family of America.
I'm endlessly fascinated with the ways families work and the ways they don't.
I try to do everything from the viewpoint of what's best for my kids. I have three kids and two great dads and it's not always easy, but you have to try to be a little selfless and we manage just fine.
As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.
The vast majority of the American people are hard-working taxpayers who take responsibility for their families, go to work every day, they pay their mortgage on time, they volunteer in their community.
I have a lot of responsibilities outside myself. I have a large family. I want to know I can always be helpful.
I don't want to make that sound like I'm preaching from a mountain top when I say you have to give your family everything, because I know it's hard for people. I'm lucky to be in a position where you can establish those ground rules and make it that way.
If there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking. Also, the people whom I grew up with all did things they really loved. And I think that's an important lesson.
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