Family reunions are peculiar things. They are entertaining reminders that being related is relative.
For most of us, the family-reunion experience follows a predictable pattern. Swarms of largely-unfamiliar faces make you wonder how it is that one couple managed to produce such a wide variety of progeny. Streams of shrieking children flow without purpose, leaving havoc in their wake. Questions about your life choices, lot in life, and living will stimulate endless debates amongst the few attendees that you do recognize. Piles of potluck food prompt you to pray for luck as you fill your plate. Yet, despite their recognized shortcomings, family reunions are a summer rite of passage that cannot and shouldn’t be avoided.
Reunions are one of the few times, outside funerals and weddings, that extended families conglomerate. And why wouldn’t you want to conglomerate and communicate with a bunch of people that you are mysteriously related to through a few knotty twists in your family tree? Just admit it, those knobby loops are mighty intriguing and often amusing.
We recently went to Jason’s family’s reunion. His Aunt Kathy did a great job organizing this one, a daunting and frustrating task no doubt. There were games for the kids, lots of delicious and not-so-delicious grub, and bubble soccer. Plus, some multigenerational jump roping, which spontaneously erupted and I participated wholeheartedly in.
Thanks Kathy for getting the entire gang together. You can’t have summer without a reunion, as everyone knows since we’ve all tried.