Ritual

Rituals are acts or series of acts that are repeated at particular times for particular reasons, sometimes religious, sometimes secular. By detailing his mother's ritual of combing her hair, Lee emphasizes the importance of this act in his own life as well as his parents'. Family rituals are the glue that bonds members to one another, giving them both meaning and identity. Simple acts such as combing one's hair, or watching a mother comb her hair, accrue meaning for family members as time passes, as the very repetition of the act cements the image of the ritual in one's mind. This image can become the dominant memory a family member has for another. Lee's own memory of this ritual includes not only watching his mother comb her hair but watching his father watch her.

By presuming to know his father's "real" reason for liking his mother's hair pinned...