Family

Family.  A word that encompasses those people with whom we theoretically have a close genetic makeup.  I say theoretically because, well, it just doesn’t always happen that way.  My sister and I are living proof of this concept.

Our inner-family relationships are some of the most unique relationships that we have.  While in the teen years, we pretend to hate our families, sometimes even to the point that we actually believe that we do hate them; but we don’t.  We have an inherent love for them that surpasses all else.

Proof of this concept: in high school sports, the teenage guys make fun of each other regularly in a form that has come to be known as trash talk.  When it comes to trash talk, nothing is sacred.  But there is a line of sorts; a line that, if crossed, will inevitably lead to a confrontation or a serious sort.  That line is the family, specifically the mother.  You try making a “your mom” comment, and you have asked to be beat up, even if the other guy is smaller.

We will do crazy things for our families.  There are many people that we love: friends, roommates, teachers – but nothing that runs deeper than family.  Which is interesting because normally we don’t necessarily treat them that way.  If you would like some evidence, just look at two teenage siblings, particularly a brother and sister.  They are, in my mother’s words, “constantly at each others’ throats.”  But how does the older brother feel about his younger sister?  Try asking the younger sister on a date and you will see.

For our families, we will go to endless lengths.  Take, for example, the recent Thanksgiving break.  A storm that had been described as a winter hurricane and the storm of the decade (some went as far as to say the century, though the professionals in the field would disagree) was predicted to basically shut down the state of Utah.  Some, who could get out early, tried to beat the storm out.  But for those of us that couldn’t?  I don’t think that even if it had been the storm of the century that it would have stopped the majority of us.  Come hell or high water (or in this case several feet of snow), we were getting home for Thanksgiving.  We were being cautious, but we were getting home.

That’s the thing about family.  We will do virtually anything for them.  Yet interestingly enough, many times we won't be as ready to help them unless the circumstances are dire.  In an emergency we don't even hesitate to respond, but under normal circumstances, sometimes we take them for granted and refuse to go out of our way because, for some strange reason we subconsciously view their needs as lesser.  We seem very quick to judge them and sometimes we are very slow to forgive.  Sometimes family members are the slowest to accept changes (even when they are for the better).

And even as I say this, I realize that I'm not immune for this odd plague.  There is nothing that I wouldn't do for my family if they really needed it; but I too have been guilty at times of deeming a family member's need as insignificant, or even burdensome.  But it's so sad, that we would do that to those that we love the most.  Or maybe its not so much that we love them the most, as we love them to deepest.  They should be the ones that we love the most (and many times they are: husband and wife, parent to child, etc), but they aren't always (siblings, child to parent, etc.).