Family Reunion

This weekend is always my father's family reunion -- something I believe I have only missed once in the last twelve years. But it is something that my attendance is expected -- by my father, and by my family members. He accepts no excuse for the failure to appear. And if showed without at least one apple pie in my hand, I would not be allowed to hear the gun go off. It truly is one of those aspects of my existence that I have come to know is simply by which I am defined to my uncles, my cousins and other folks who show up...

But I enjoyed some good green beans, and great corn, and my mom's chicken & dumplings, and listened to folks talk about the kind of things that people who are related to each other, but rarely share air or food with one another: dead relatives, how you are related, work, random happenings in their respective lives, and why we don't get together more. And the space between them are filled with life, death, disagreements, love and great and horrible, all tied up with a pretty bow.

And the pie pans went home, scrapped clean. Til next July, huh?