Every memory I have growing up is of my family. My family was my sole source of friendly human contact outside of school. My family has changed over the years; we have lost members and gained new ones, but still stay the same loving group that we have always been. We are not what you might call the stereotypical American family, living the perfect American dream, but to say that we are dysfunctional would be saying too much. I love my family; I have only one, and would not want to change them for the anything. We laugh, argue, help each other and fight each other. We know what makes the other happy, and what aunt makes the best ham for Christmas (my mom).
A break down in the family unit is more common in this day and age; that the meaning of the word family has changed almost drastically. There were never “baby’s mama’ or “baby’s daddy,” there was just mom and dad, brother and sister, and the dog. That was the family unit, but things change, we that all too well, but to change your family, to ask to leave what you have had first in the world. To leave what help you grow to what you are, to have the customs that you practice, is unconscionable to me.
If anytime of the year is needed to be labeled, the time of family, it is now. The winter holidays, for better or worse, bring us all together. Today I witnessed entire families playing in the snow, with sleds and snow angels and snowball fights, and how I wished my family was part of it all. I walk by homes with lit Christmas trees with vast amounts of presents under them. I see children playing with fathers, mothers caring for children. I see families being started, with proposals under the biggest tree I have ever seen.
We need to laugh and play, we need to argue and fight. But we need family there to help us. We need family to help us when we are down, to direct us in the right way. Family is there for a reason my friends, whether you like yours or not, without family, we are nothing; you are nothing, I am nothing.
I have learned what to do and what not to do, when it comes to making a family of my own. My father failed, my mother succeeded, and I have learned from them both. And when I have a family of my own, I will look back, at my childhood, at my adolescence, and say thank you to my family for making me who I am, for making me a better man, and for teaching me that Christmas is more than just presents.
Happy Holidays from the Prisoner, from my family, to yours.
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