Family

 Well... I have survived turning 60... YEAH.... I've now been 60 for nearly a month and I must say... I really feel no different than I did when I was 59... BIG SURPRISE!!!! So... I will continue on and next year... guess what I will turn 61 and really no one will care to any large extent. So... as the song says... "Don't Worry Be Happy."

A couple of weeks ago my wife (Kathy) was face chating, or facebooking, of whatever you call it with my brothers wife (Jami) and it seems that they were making plans for all of us to get together for dinner. When Kathy told me we were doing this I was surprised. After-all... we don't normally do this kind of activity with my family outside of us visiting with my parents. It was sort-of surprising because it had been years since my brother and our wives had did anything together. 

My brother and I were quite close growing up, but as adults we've drifted apart as we had gotten married and had our own families. Add to the fact I didn't live all that close well... it happens... you grow apart. 

So... we got together last night and it was great. We had wonderful conversation about many topics some of which we agree and some which we did not, but it was great. When the conversation turned to the topic of us getting together Jami shared a story of her and her brother. It seems that she had a similar experience where she and her brother had not seen each other for along time. So... she invited him over and he came, and again she made an invitation and he came. But he had never reciprocated the invitation... so she invited herself over to his place. The brother was puzzled as to why... was something wrong... was this a harbinger of bad news... he was puzzled. When asked, Jami responded... "Because your my brother and I was to spend some time with you." He was sort of shocked by the out poring of love and family. 

It was really the reason for our getting together as well. And it was a GREAT time. He even picked up the tab which was really unusual. I thanked him. 

So... as I reflect on this today... the next day... I'm thinking that "Family" is really important as I age. As an adult I've tried to separate from my family of origin because it wasn't always the best or what I thought was the best. So... since marriage I've always lived some distance from the rest of my family. This is still true. I live at least an hour and a half from my family of origin and I like that to some degree. I see my siblings a hand full of times a year mostly at holidays and chance meeting when visiting our parents. The excuse for us has been... well we live to far away... they don't visit us... so we won't visit them. And it goes on.

But turning 60 has a way of changing some of this thinking. It's not that I don't like my siblings... that couldn't be the furthest from my mind. However... we've grown apart. We have different ways of looking at things. We have different values... different understandings... were just different from back in the day. But isn't that difference just what we need to be about? Isn't that what it means to be diverse? Isn't that how we learn new things? I think so!!!!

We didn't dwell on the past... we didn't remissness about the good ole days... we had a great conversation about what we are today.... and I liked it. I felt I learned something. I felt a kindred spirit in my brother and his wife. And... it was GOOD. 

So... I hope we can do this more frequently because... it's about being Family.