Marriage and Family Paper (part 2)
In beginning this undertaking, I start with me, as I am a physical amassing of many of the emotional, relational, and spiritual accumulations of my family. Who am I, and what questions do the answers raise as to how I have become (for lack of a better word) “me”?
In general, I am a strange combination of tensions that somehow coexist, but only with a fair degree of internal struggle. Often at the same time, I can consistently be both:
inspiringly idealistic and critically realistic (often pessimistic)
check-for-a pulse rational and out-of-control passionate
die-on-a-hill principled and sell-to-the-first-bidder pragmatic
high-mindedly moral and flesh-satisfyingly carnal
rudely independent and painfully lonely
joyfully certain and angrily doubtful
faithfully hardworking and selfishly lazy
In considering these traits, many questions come to mind:
Have others in my family experienced any of these in the same way that I do?
What events and experiences, hopes and disappointments in our shared past have shaped these characteristics?
When compared to former generations, is the sum total of any of these traits increasing or decreasing with me, and what role do I have in increasing or decreasing them in the lives of my own children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren (i.e. to the third and fourth generation)?
To what degree have we as a family dealt with or discussed any of this in the past, and to what extent do we need to, both in the present and in the future?
Finally, what has God been doing in our family over time, and how are we to respond now in a way that honors him and each other in the midst of it?