For the Unconventional

This past weekend we celebrated the life of my step-brother Paul at his funeral in Las Vegas. Its always a good time when the family gets together and we usually end up laughing at silly things that are generally irreverent and doing things the unconventional way.

But that's ok, because we're unconventional people you see.

I come from good ol' divorce stock. Kind of like the feral child kind, but not the same. I am the youngest of four kids and then there are all the rest. "All the rest?..." you ask, yes that would be the rest of my family.

When people ask how many kids are in my family I usually give one of two answers, but I first ask "In my mom's family or my dad's family?" Then people cock there heads to one side as they process and then I just say there are seven kids in my family. Because no matter how you slice and dice it, that's how many there are with either parent. I could say ten, but then they ask what kind of van we drove and how we all fit into that little house and on and on. So seven, we'll just stick with that.

Divorce does unkind things to the family unit and I'd say for the most part our family, once again unconventional in our ways, has found a system that has seemed to work. If I break it down simply, its the fact that both of my parents have found people who love their kids as their own. Not all of our mixed family might claim us, but then again the feelings are probably mutual. There is also an understanding that we have an other family that is equally important in our lives. But sharing memories and delighting in life's successes and failures is what has made our family tight.

We've grown up together, sharing spaces, slamming doors, exchanging gifts and cars, cherishing nieces and nephews all the same as the conventional families in America. But really we're all lucky because we have four parents instead of two.