A Family Affair

This past weekend I attended a family weekend. My wife’s niece married an amazing guy that she met in the DC area where they are both school teachers. The wedding itself was about 3 miles from our home and the reception was no more that 20 minutes away. So, I would certainly consider this a very local celebration. (for many of us anyway). The groom however had family travelling in from as far away as Germany. I looked around the room at the reception and I saw a truly united family or I guess I should say united families with no regard for race, nationality, religious background, beliefs, hair color, shoe size, dress size, or anything else.

As soon as we got to the reception, the dance floor was immediately filled with a handful of young children – all under the age of about 7 or 8. In that mix of kids were; a fair haired Irish kid, two African American kids (the little boy was the ring bearer), and a brother & sister who were recently adopted from the Republic of Moldova. All of whom now related by some kind of dotted line. These kids took turns holding hands and jumping and dancing around the room with huge smiles and plenty of laughter. These kids knew nothing except laughter, fun, and the party that was already in full swing. Some of these kids had just met each other this weekend yet they spoke and understood a universal language. They didn’t know prejudice. They didn’t know hate. They didn’t even know difference. They knew people. They knew family. They knew togetherness.

My brother in law (our wives are sisters so we refer to ourselves as the Snyder family “outlaws”), turned to me and pointed to the dance floor and said “How in the hell do people screw THAT up as adults”? I wanted to captured an ounce of the mindset that those kids had, bottle it, and give it to the rest of the world. Let’s face it, weddings come in a very mixed bag of varieties… some fun … some little more than obligatory. But this wedding was different for me. As I met more and more of the groom’s family and friends throughout the day (which included military officers, and Deacons of the Catholic Church), I truly felt honored and felt like everyone was made a little better and a little stronger as a result of the union. The chemistry that was in that room is capable of much greatness.