Bill Singley considers the many ways we define family.
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By Bill Singley
“How could anyone not like Jerry?” —Seinfeld’s mother
Oklahoma basketball player after devastating defeat by Villanova refused to do a press interview until he talked to his mother.
Blood Lines: Family. Mom. Dad. Daughter. Son. Maybe the family dog.
Blood lines extend to aunts, uncles, cousins, and all those people we usually only see on holidays and funerals—and that’s often more than we want, due to spoken and unspoken feuds, ill will, jealousies, and envy. Every day on national television, politically correct family sit-coms entertain us with tales built on these things. Their problems get settled in 22 minutes. The real world’s relationship hiccups run for decades: Hatfields and McCoys, mafia wars, the French and the Germans, drug lords south of the border etc…
Love them or hate them—they’re what we all have. Thank God for most of them. . . most of them will step up in times of trouble. How often have you heard, “He may be a SOB, but he’s our SOB.” Talk about family! Think of Ted Bundy’s mother going to his trial . . . .
The other family we share are our work families (cubicle mates), play families (team mates), experience families (fraternity and sorority brothers and sisters, platoon members, Kiwanis clubs, and maybe even cell mates).
Often these ties are closer than our blood relations, who don’t really know what we do or how we do it. These are the ‘family’ members we spend our daily lives with, party with, buy elementary school fundraiser chocolate bars from—our neighbors, church goers, school and military chums—you know the rest.
We need both. Blood lines keep us grounded to our history, our reality, and usually our beliefs. Our other ‘family’ provides us with the various spices of life: career promotions, group vacations, newfound friendships—which sometimes morph into deeper relationships—resulting in newborns which merge us into fresh genuine family blood lines. And it all starts again. Ain’t it wonderful!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
More than a few years ago, William Singley won the Samuel Goldwyn Literary Award at UCLA. Immediately afterward he spent a year in Vietnam taking photographs and writing stories about the First Brigade, 101st Airborne. His stories and photos were published worldwide and he earned a Bronze Star. He also served with 82nd Airborne.
Bill grew up at the South Jersey shore and has lived and worked in Africa, Hawaii, and traveled throughout Southeast Asia, the Orient, and Europe. He earned his living as the corporate sales manager for a major international airline and holds a master’s degree in Asian Studies. He raised a family close to the beach in Southern California where he resides today. Hook Up: A Novel of Fort Bragg is a result of his military experiences.
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