Thicker Than Water

Today, I want to write about my family. For those of you who follow my blogs, this is a topic that I’ve written about before. Why now another blog?
I guess what I want to say is that the lessons that I learned being part McLoughlin is that family is family, and family is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching–they are your family.
I always hear people talk about ‘dysfunctional families.’ It annoys me, because it makes you think that somewhere there’s this magical family where everyone gets along, and no one ever screams things they don’t mean, and there’s never a time when sharp objects should be hidden. Well, I’m sorry, but that family doesn’t exist. And if you find some neighbors that seem to be the grinning model of ‘function,’ trust me – that’s the family that will get arrested for smuggling arms in their SUV between soccer games.
The branches of the Mc Loughlin family tree include editors, nurses, physical therapists, police officers, teachers, lawyers, MBA’s and yes, even a lowly HR Director whose lucky enough to still be here and, from time to time, sits behind the microphones of WKIP radio.
Yes, the Mcloughlin’s have come along way from when our grandfather arrived in 1917.
Even though we may not see each other as often as we should, I know that my membership in this family has given me a strong first world and a strong set of relationships. Becuse of this, I’ll always be able to walk the world because I know where I belong. I will always have some place to come back to.
The best you can really hope for is a family where everyone’s problems, big and small, are solveable by working together and everyone protects each other. Kind of like an orchestra where every instrument is out of tune, in exactly the same way.
So,when you think of your family just remember you’re bound to them by blood which gives you that much more in common than diseases, genetics, hair, and eye color. It’s like they’re part of your blueprint. But even though you’re stuck with them, at the same time, they’re also stuck with you. So that’s why they always get the front rows at christenings and funerals. Because they’re the ones that are there, you know, from the beginning to the end. Like it or not.