2004-09-19
In a world where most of us are caught up in our own struggle to be successful we forget to keep in touch with the people who got us where we are, the people who gave us the confidence to conquer the world. But most of all we tend to forget the people who brought us into this world.

In America, the 60s idea of sex before marriage was thought to liberate women. Suddenly, good girls didnt have to be so good anymore. Among the young of America, sex was viewed as liberation. But to the women who got pregnant before marriage, it was viewed as the biggest mistake they had ever made. Although America could handle the silent whispers that their daughters were having sex - they could not deal with the openness of an unwed pregnancy.

 In the 1970s marriages that ended in divorce skyrocketed leaving the aftermath of thousands of children being used as objects of revenge, battled over, and turned against their mothers and fathers.  Children were kept from their parents, siblings lost touch with brothers and sisters.  The fabric of family lost its ability to hold it all together.

Fast forward to present time. The children of the seventies have been labeled generation X and we all have attachment issues. Go figure. In our twenties - family has become the irritation that we have to deal with on the holidays.  Family becomes a state far away from our oh-so-hip existences. Family becomes the occasional Christmas card those times when we actually remember to mail them that is. We forget the half-brother or sister that the family talks about from time to time.

 As we get older we begin to see the value of biological family. All thoughts, freaks and nutjobs we used as hilarious conversation pieces in the games of I Bet You My Family is Stranger Than Yours - have suddenly become a rich source of information stories of people we never knew or heard of. That is before Stories that as children we knew existed but never realized their true meanings. Stories that somehow give explanations of the way we are as individuals. Information that we have never cared to acknowledge before because we were too self-centered to look outside of our own boxes.  We never really know how much they mean to us until they and their stories are gone. But it is a gift that we are able to share their words with future generations.

HAVE YOU CALLED YOUR FAMILY LATELY?

p.s To all the writers out  there--they make great material to write about.