21st Century America and re-defining the new Nuclear Family

As promised on my first post (although falsely advertised as being the next topic I would address), it's time for a brief discourse on the ever-changing face of the American "family".

I'm looking at a card posted to a bulletin board to the left of the PC. It sums things up pretty well in a few short (*everyone breathes a sigh of relief*) words. It simply reads "FAMILY - People who are joined by shared memories and hopes. People who are joined together by love."

I couldn't agree more and thankfully for all of you, it'll keep me from babbling on and on. I'm sure some folks have noticed by now that it would have taken me sixty-seven words (or more) to get the same though across.

The four people pictured to the left, well....absolutely none of them shares a surname. They do, however, share hopes....and so much more.

"Life is funny, skies are sunny, bees make honey, tell me where is sanity.........?"

Funny question, that. It can be fleeting, enduring, enhanced, destroyed, etc. It can also be found in the least-expected places and faces, in situations that would seem to be contradictory at best when compared to the very notion. Candle an egg an you'll likely see a developing life.....candle your "soul", and you may be surprised to find the very same thing.

So - here ya have it, kids. Meet the family. That's my cowgirl...Mz. Daize. We've been friends (and more) for something pushing two decades, now. There have been times we haven't seen each other for extended periods for a variety of reasons that would take twenty-seven (of my) paragraphs and a couple bottles to even begin to explain. Which brings us back to the whole "life is funny" part.

Timing can be everything..........or nothing. Opportunities missed by days can lead to years of consequences. Do these events conspire to keep some people apart, or is the confluence of the resultant actions and situations that lead to things finally being "right"?

Meet the boys. In traditional blog style, we'll go with slightly altered names to protect the relative anonymity of everyone involved.. Zane's the oldest at 13 and younger brother Benji followed seven years later. They are, without a doubt, two of the finest young lads I've ever known.....even if they make me feel old sometimes. Zane was born at a time when I though I might still be a rock and roll star or some other ridiculous notion like that. They hard part to swallow these days is realizing Mz. Daize and I were already into the back half of our twenties at the time. Knowing (and really trying to digest the fact that) he's now a teen......wow.

And thus ends the initial and (hopefully) somewhat informative installment of what will surely be an ongoing topic of discussion. Blood may be thicker than water, but we've come to realize that love is stronger than either..............

"Yelling as hard as they can, the doubters all were stunned..........heard louder than a gun, the sound they made was love.........." - Wayne

Later, everyone...............there's probably something else I should be doing right now.

Life IS good,

J.