Family

“It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time,” said author Ruth Senter . . .

We’d redecorate the family room and get rid of the old gold couch; then, when we could afford it, buy a new one. No one would miss a couch for a while. Kids like to sit on the floor anyhow; all they really need are a few throw pillows.

But over the past two years without a couch, a strange thing happened; people stopped using the family room. There was no place to be close. Oh, every now and then, when someone needed to use a volume from the encyclopedias, he or she would sit at Grandpa’s old desk. Or, if the men in our house wanted to watch a televised sports event, they’d grab pillows and sprawl out on the floor.

But no one sat there and talked to each other very often. After dinner, everyone split to individual rooms. I had a growing uneasiness that…