"God places the solitary in families," comforting words from the Bible... families, by blood, by obligation, by necessity, by desire... and sometimes, if one is very lucky, by love. It is a word that implies solidity, a rock-solid foundation, a place to go home to... to grow out of... to grow away from, and yet to remember and hang onto... the echoes never leaving one's ears or one's heart, the memories carved like painted ivory, from a single tusk, delicately colored in brilliant hues, and softer ones, faded sometimes, so dim as to be almost forgotten or left behind. The place where one begins, and hopes to end... the thing one works hard to build on one's own... the pieces like building blocks reaching high into the sky... Family... what images that conjures... what memories... what dreams.