Many people have an ideal of what a family is in their mind. For some, it is an imagined image, something one would picture from a perfect 1950′s ideal, something that never existed outside of the movies and TV.
For me, family is not limited to this structure of mother, father, and natural born children. I see family as something much more ideal, a set of relationships that extend beyond friendship, that recognize true kinship, not just genetic and gender-bound ties, and whose members make willing sacrifices for the well-being of other family members. Members of such a family try to be together when possible, but distance is no true separation.
I am more than troubled when I hear someone say, “that is not a family,” or “You are not in a family relationship.” I understand that some people fear what is different or untypical. But that fear doesn’t merit disruption and disapproval of the relationships of others.
I accept no authority other than myself over who I call brother or sister or who I love and choose as a spouse. “Ain’t nobody’s business if I do” is a wise refrain. Imagine your own family and make it real.
The The Imagined Family by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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