family

Take a close look at this picture. Double click the picture and look carefully on the left side.
Do you remember the piece i posted about the century plant?
How i thought it was speaking to me with the curves. How i searched all over the island for something similar but couldn't find any other plant coming even remotely close.
How i consulted with plant people and they were all baffled as well and still are.

Recently my next door neighbor was going to pull the whole plant out. i don't actually own the plant but i am responsible for it being where it is located which is not exactly on my property, it is at the bottom of my driveway across the street. The neighbor thought it had become an eyesore and would just become a brown ugly mess when it completely died off. He thought he was sparing all of us from some horrible view when it kicked the bucket.

Luckily he was caught in the act and stopped. It was revealed to him that i had become obsessed with it and was photographing it regularly. It absolutely could not be pulled out especially since it was budding with all these flowers and the curves were back. Double click the photo and look carefully at the left hand side of the picture. You will see its curves. Look back at the old posts of the century plant and you will see it is re-creating itself. The letter "C" is now thick and buried safely inside the plants structure. The "S" curves around it and keeps it safe.

i have been working on a piece concerning the word "family" and realized that this plant is a perfect example of the tenacity of the "family of man."

There has been a lot of talk lately concerning the thorny issue's of marriage and family. Rather than focus on the term "marriage" i thought it might be more interesting to explore the term "family."

Family can be viewed from three perspectives;

1. The nuclear family consisting of one man, one woman and their biological children,
2. Extended families consisting of one man, one woman their biological children and blood relations such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and
3. Complex families consisting of structures larger than any two adults and the conscious associations connected by a recognizable theme.

As our world has become more mobile complex families play a greater role in bringing together people who in the past may never have thought of themselves as part of any family structure outside their blood relationships. This subset of "family" sometimes goes unrecognized even when the progression of society as a whole is directly impacted by its existence. When "family" is the topic and they are reviewed in public forums complex families are too often left out of the equation as far as having major impacts on a person's development.

Family...one man, one woman and their biological children is being challenged as the definitive description for that word. It is no longer the sum total of family. It cannot be the only thing considered as sufficient to create a world wide community that can produce individuals capable of moving society forward. Is "family" the only composition of humans that can produce individuals who can be trusted to pass on "societies moral code?" The term "family" without add-ons......"extended" and "complex" is being resisted.

Just recently i was driving a friend, who had been staying with us for 10 days, to the airport. During the drive over the conversation turned to the usual thank you for your hospitality etc., except this time it had a twist. The friend had decided to tell me about a conversation they had had with the other guest who had left the day before. Apparently the two of them had come to the conclusion that vacationing in our home was unlike vacationing with other friends of theirs. They had decided that they both felt like family when staying with us. They liked feeling like family and they wanted us to know this because they wished it was more of the norm than not.

i was thrilled because i view friends as part of our "complex" family and if they felt like family then we were all in the same boat. i then started examining the idea of "complex" families as a vehicle to expand our understanding of the complexities of mankind in general. The whole focus on one man, one woman and biological children leaves too many in the "family of man" out of the discussion.

The plant made me focus this week on the "complex" issue of the "family of man" and the need to expand the definition of the term "family." Since it is a work in progress as part of humanity squared i thought i'd end this piece with another picture.

Double click on the view of the "whole plant." It has many parts that interact as one unit(family) and yet they remain "different." It is beautiful and ugly, it has thorns and soft spots, flowers and long strong shoots with graceful curves all at the same time. It resembles the "family of man" in all his positive and negative aspects and still manages to work together.