ABOUT FAMILYS

                                               

Yesterday was our annual family reunion and the thirty-ninth year in a row the Holst Family has gathered together. These reunions are bitter sweet for me, because first and foremost they are a simple reminder of what the ravages of time have done to the charter members, my siblings and me. Sadder yet is the absence of some of them. Mom and dad, our brother Kenny, Kitty and our nephew Jim. But in the end we get together to honor their memory, as well as to renew old friendships.

When Dad passed away, the honorary elder of the family became me, through this cruel act of attrition. I want to say life is kind of like peeling an onion, except it’s not always the outer peel that goes first. Example me. We’re a funny family, the only way you can leave the ranks is to die and then you can expect, were still going to talk about you, but in a kinder gentler way. We give up on no one.

I think what brought me front and center yesterday was my nephew and his wife brought their weeks old baby boy and all I could think was “Yes the beat goes on.” There we stood, the alpha and the omega of the Holst family, at least for now. My father was adamant that these reunions take place every year. Dad could have made a billion bucks and owned the world but it all would have paled in comparison to his love and pride for his family. This was his destiny in life to do as the lord asked him to do, “Go forth and multiply,” and he should get an A+

One of the biggest ills in our society--- No, let me rephrase that-- the biggest ill in our society is the breakdown of the basic family structure. If all the mom’s and dads in this country today had the same sense of pride and satisfaction, as dad had in his family, this would be a far better world for all of us to live in. You can pour all of the money you want into education and social programs and you will never take the place of loving parents or guardians. When I looked at that baby boy yesterday and all of the other children that were there, I shared dads values because nothing, but nothing, is more important then those kids. If we want them to be there for us someday, then we need to be there for them now. We didn’t get this earth from our forefathers; we borrowed it from our kids. Our family isn’t unique; there are lots of good families out there that feel the same way we do about our families but no one is writing about them. The media prefers to write about the bad boys and ignore the good ones.

 I want to leave you with a little human-interest story. I’m grocery shopping a while back and the woman in front of me, embarrassed and upset, doesn’t have enough money to pay for her groceries and she is picking out a few items to return. At the other end of the line from me is a young man bagging the groceries he just paid for and he sees her quandary. He comes over and picks up what money she did have on the counter and puts it back in her hand and gives the clerk his credit card. She looks like she’s going to cry and is shaking her head no. He says ‘I insist on this and don’t take this away from me. “  As for me.-- I want to meet his parents.