A Family Affair

I was thinking about what family means tonight.
Everybody knows their family isn’t perfect but secretly we wish our family would be that family, the one who doesn’t have any problems.

If only, if only such a family existed.

Except we’d be envious or contemptuous of them by turns. Perfection isn’t something any of us can attain. I don't know about you, but I'm more likely to reject someone who appears perfect. After all, we can't relate! I'm nowhere close to having it all together!

One of my very first assignments in Jessup’s class was to define ‘family’. And it turns out it’s a lot harder to define than you would think. I think my group came up with something like: “a group of people bound by a common bond, usually blood, but sometimes a sense of kinship, who love and serve one another unconditionally.”

Webster’s is going to tell you that a family is: “any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins”

But that’s leaving out friends, who can often be just as close or closer than blood relatives, depending on the family.

The point being; family is a complicated thing. It’s a place, a group of people, where you belong, even if you don’t always like them. It’s your best friend who helps you through crap, the aunt who knows your secrets and the parents who raised and love you but don’t always understand you. It's siblings you fight with, cousins you admire and wingmates who have seen you at your best and worst.
It’s a lot of disappointment, but it’s also one of the best and most encouraging support groups you’ll have.

It’s hard for us to acknowledge (mostly in ourselves and the role in our family that we play) but a family is made up of people. Fallible, flawed people, who will never be exactly who we think they should, but are amazing and unique and lovable in their own way.

*grins* I'm being reflective tonight. Can you tell?

Merry Christmas, dear readers.

Much love,

'Quel