I don’t get family reunions. well, I don’t get why they’re so great.

here’s why: I reason inductively.

so here’s my specific experience (here’s how my family works): we are all spread about the country [world] and so getting together is a very intentional thing, but on a very personal level. necessarily. (and luckily! it’s much better to get to spend time with folks one family at a time so that you can really have meaningful dialogue. there’s only so much satisfaction in repeating your “news” over and over again.)

we plan long car trips or we plan visits with family into vacations. because we’re so split apart geographically, we *can’t* come together even *once* a year, let alone three or four times a year. so I don’t know my cousins very well at all. I don’t even know their middle names; only because of some fluke (we were all born in January or June, same days each month) I can guess at birthdays. but don’t ask me ages. =)

I love my aunts and uncles. especially those who’ve made the effort to get to know us. I like that in my family, I know who my *real* family is and who my “relatives” are. it’s a good lesson for a child (and for an adult) about the difference between earthly families and heavenly families. and it makes a person realize that even at the most basic levels, the only relationships that mean anything are the ones that you work at. being related by blood is NOT being family.

so, I like the sound of all the “folks” getting together, I guess. and I’m not saying that the way someone else’s family works isn’t good. but a mi, I’d much rather have the select few than the whole clan.