Legacy of Grace, part un

I'm really into families.  I studied a lot about family and couples relationships in college, thanks Sociology!  I study family and children's therapy now in school.  I work with families and children.  I get involved and excited about our church's family VBS.  Most of all, I love my family.

I'm into family trees.  I love recounting the 13 cousins, the multitude of aunts and the one uncle, our convoluted histories and stories, unrelated fragments of tales recounting climbing sand dunes, bullet-stopping Bibles, playing in a cramped space in government housing...  Those family reports that our elementary schools made us complete year after year?  My favorite.

I wonder how much my Chinese heritage and values come into play?  When you study Chinese vocabulary, besides introducing yourself, knowing the proper way to name and address each of your relatives is one of the first lessons.  Sun Lao-Shi drummed the names into us during week 2-4 of our fall quarter...

When you're a teenager, it's tres cool to have a family background full of crazy stories, traumatic experiences, and drama.  Most kids hated their families...at least when we talked to our friends about it. I always felt--stupid as it sounds--a little inferior because my family had no crazy or dysfunctional relationships or estranged aunts or uncles, and everyone could actually stand each other.

But now I've had a chance to think about it for several years.  I've stopped being ashamed at not having a dysfunctional family (which brings me to another topic: dysfunction.  Aren't we all a little bit dysfunctional anyway?  Who sets the standards for "functioning"?  And isn't that also too future-prescriptive?  --if you don't fit the traditional criteria of nuclear family construct, you're probably from a "dysfunctional family," and thus doomed to lead and continue the cycle of messed-up-ness?  But I digress)

I've learned not only to accept, but embrace and proudly celebrate my family.  Praise God!  I have learned much from parents who love me, from a brother who challenges me, from aunts and uncles who make time for me, from cousins young and old who befriend and celebrate with me.  My family has been one of the biggest blessings of my life.  If I want a family of my own a little too much, it's partly because I want to replicate the dynamics of joy this wonderful, perfectly huggable group of people have brought me.