My family and other wild parties

Family fun

Families are the reason you’re on this planet. A man and a woman (your parents) came together and, by the grace of God or IVF, you and your siblings were created. I’m sure you’ve been wondering how such an odd bunch of people could have showed up in your lives....and you’re not wrong!

Though you may all have been cut from the same cloth your fibre and textures are each unique. In my family, we’re an eclectic bunch – one of us is homespun silk, one is rough cotton, another is smooth chambray and one of us has a hide as thick as a rhino’s – and I’m not telling you who’s who!!

We are also of different temperaments. We range from mellow to brash  but it’s our powers of recall of childhood that makes each one of us stand out. One of us believes we had a tough childhood, another thinks it was pretty average, the other believes that it was a “Pollyanna” world where there were reasons to be cheerful and the last of us thinks it was a disaster on the scale of the Titanic. 

Monkeying around

Yes, when we get together it’s pretty wild and we always agree to disagree!

We have many a vociferous exchange on a host of controversial subjects from capital punishment to the problem of addictions. We are opinionated and quarrelsome. We do not give in easily and we rarely go down without a fight! Thankfully we only get together once or twice in the year so the neighbours have peace.

Talk to the head 'cos the face ain't listening!

Verbal sparring is our weapon of choice. It must be our defective (or perhaps effective) genes that turns us all into eloquent orators and social commentators. We take immense pleasure in explaining to our parents how their style of nurturing did alot more harm than good. Birth order is another one of our complaints and I’ll be the first to say that being the eldest was a responsibility I’d rather have avoided. We like to sound off about the very things we cannot change but don’t seem at all quick to change the things we can eg. being less argumentative.

The other oddity is that we are happy to give advice but balk if another member offers us any. Most of the advice dished out defies logic and sometimes gravity! One of us with the least education and who couldn’t wait to leave school (with few qualifications) has risen to the lofty heights of company director and is the most prosperous of all. He is the self-made member of our family claiming that a university education is a handicap to an entrepreneurial spirit. I suspect he’s right but don’t wish to concede my position that no amount of education is ever wasted – be it too much or too little.

Family peace-keeping force

The two younger members of the family have earned themselves the title of adventurers since embarking on working holidays Down Under. One succeded and one failed in the material sense but they have both thrived.

I am perhaps the spiritual pioneer. I have crossed the psychological and emotional frontiers that once were obstructive. I am the raconteur and indomitable spirit who cruises through the challenges  that life throws down – sometimes with a little help from my family.

You certainly can’t choose them....thank God....if you could you’d never choose them! 

In our own strange way, we love each other dearly but some of the gang need to be kept on a tight leash. 

Laughter is the great leveller and we do alot of that whether it’s at someone else’s or our own expense. Only in our family could a tragedy turn into a comedy and vice versa ....eat your heart out Mr Shakespeare!

Really wild tea party

I’d have hated to be an only child....(wistful sigh)...all that spoiling and attention would have done me no good at all (I think). Love them or hate them, thickness of blood unites and in times of need or with hours to kill... guess who’ll be coming to dinner?