Family Affairs

The older I get the more I realize that family is the most important thing.  Family is here to support and protect each other, not use and manipulate.  And not to totally abandon if they say a word or support a cause you don't like.  Pronouns are pretty meaningless when you need a hand to hold during chemo.  Political parties fall by the wayside when you've been in a wreck and need a hug and a ride home.  Families are what last.  Families are what matter.

It feels like American culture looks down on people who live and work with extended family.  I get that those roots are in colonialism and westward expansion, both of which involved people leaving behind their loved ones to forge their own path.  While there is something to be said for the spirit of the pioneer, there's also something to be said for people who value and cling to family ties.

Why spend your life building anything that will only break down once you are gone?  The only reason to pour yourself into hard work and goals are so that your children will use them as a platform for their success and their children and their children and their children.  But in all our pioneering, we've lost that, we even fear it.  The term "nepo-baby" is said so derisively and no one wants to be accused of getting help from family, no wonder no one in this country is really doing anything.

We're all so fiercely independent that we're easy prey for scammers, easy victims of debt and disappointment and none of us have enough time to get where we want because most of us just can't build an empire in only 75 years.  Forget the world, it's out to destroy you.  Love your family, care what they think.  Stay close to your family and be a great spouse, child, parent, grandchild, grandparent yourself.  Build something that will help the generations that come after you.  That is all.

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