The Importance of Family

Me and my mom and sisters.

I was very fortunate to grow up in a family that has been nothing but supportive.  My mom and dad have both encouraged me to reach for the stars.  My sisters, both younger, challenge me and tease me.  True, we may annoy each other, but we know we can always turn to one another it we needed it.  Growing up, divorce was a foreign word and separation was something done at school, not between parents.  Affairs were entertained at dinner or in a political atmosphere and adultery was one of the Ten Commandments.

It wasn't until I began to attend public school that the beauty of my world yielded to the truth beyond the pavement.  Beyond the roads I traveled on my bicycle or the neighborhood my sisters and I wandered, looking for someone to play with.  Up unto that point, I would agree if you called me naive.  I knew there was more outside of my front door because of how I was not allowed to listen to certain music or watch certain television channels.  But image my shock when people would ask me if my parents are divorced (my mom kept her maiden name).  What was this, this divorce?

Yesterday, at work, a coworker of mine stopped me to discuss a project he had asked me to help him with. We discussed the design I was constructing and then he told me he was going to have his team (he is a coach), at the award banquet, present awards of appreciation to their parents as well.  He described how the certificate would look as we walked.  I told him I believed it to be a great idea on his part and even better that the kids will get to take an active part in the process (signing their name, presenting it to their parents).  He then told me something that struck me.  "As a coach, I am teaching more than soccer.  I am teaching life.  And with this, I want to teach them appreciation for their parents and explain why we are doing this."

I followed it with the best thing I could consider, "That is a great idea.  It is sad that they will soon forget to appreciate their parents and then come back after the teens years to realize how right their parents are."

Patrick Henry Hughes and his father.

I recently saw a video, the story of which I am familiar, that shows images of a disabled son who participates in a marching band.  Though bound to a wheelchair, his father marches him around the field, learning the drill and the formations, while his son plays the trumpet.  I know parents would do anything to guarantee their children a better quality of life than was before.  The strength and courage parents have to bear for their children is moving.  I am truly in awe.

I can only hope that, come the day I become a parent, that I deserve that honor, that my patience become long and my anger short.  That I can be like my mom and my dad.  Caring, loving, compassionate, protective.  I take notes and lessons every time I am surrounded by my family.  I learn from my sisters, as well.  I love my family deeply, both my nuclear and my extended family, those I am close to and those I wish I could see more.  I have a lot to learn from "La Vie."