Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The important things

So... as I'd said, the challenge of 2007 is navigating new relationships. Increasingly, when new relationships emerge, old ones are tested. When you are faced with a whole new family, you understand what your family actually is. What it means to you, and what you mean to it. You realise that all the times when you've been the 'good' girl pay off when it's time for family to rise to your occasion.

And I begin to wonder, what is really important? The ties we are born with, we grow up and into. The ties we choose to make, what does it take to keep those strong? In the old times when people didn't choose their own lifemates, the ties were pretty much like family. Some slightly distant family connection that you grow into. Maybe it's slightly more complicated in that girls grow up muted in any case. So it's not like they were very vocal in their parent's house and had to ensure that they weren't too vocal in their in-laws place. They faded into one background, and then into the next... till they had their own children. Super cynical what?

But stepping out of the sepia... in this day and age, what does it take? At what point do you stop saying 'your family' 'my family'? Can you ever? What role does each 'partner' play to make sure that it's a smooth move?

No comments: