FAMILY REUNIONS
How do family reunions
play a part in creating Your Living Family Tree?
They may not at all. Or that may be the place
where a huge, 1000-year change begins and all of your distant cousins start talking
to each other! Let’s read a portion of Section 4, the Director, to get an insight into
how such a powwow might be pivotal…
One or many Family
Reunions
The quickest way to launch your living family tree is
for some hero to design it, set it up, and get it going while all along getting
family input as it grows in size, stature, and desirability.
But a powerful counter argument says that nothing
would launch an LFT project faster or keep it on track better than a family
reunion.
Okay, some families are scattered to the seven
corners of the earth (or is it eight?) and getting together would be a
logistical and financial nightmare. (One alternative, grouping together and
setting up interactive conference video calls, is already easy to do and surprisingly
inexpensive.)
… And some families would be quickly reduced by
murder if certain members even caught sight of other members! (In those
families, maybe not every member is invited, or you’ll want to wait until the
most violent are in the slammer…)
… And every family, or just about, has someone in the
ranks who is guaranteed to become an instant jerk, get bubbly drunk, or set
anxieties skyrocketing. (So the
Any more objections?
The point stands that almost nothing can pull the
branches of this kind of human tree closer together than when all gather to
play badminton or Mexican Train dominoes, sing, watch old family movies, swim
at the lake, and share stories in concert. Just getting the kids and grandkids
together so they know each other, that alone is a familial investment that's
hard to beat.
An ideal world would have a disciplined and reliable
family member (Aunt Ruth? Brother Jesse? You’ve got to be kidding!) grasp the genius and worth of your living family tree idea,
propose setting it up to serve your family for the next thousand years, and put
the whole thing in motion.
That person might initially invite two or three close
family members for a meal to discuss the idea. Assuming the project was
embraced (however madly), from that gathering might come a Family Board, and
from that Board the initiator would gladly be proclaimed the first Director.
The Family Board might then request that the family
have a reunion some months hence—sometimes busy families need a year of
anticipation so the dates can get saved and protected on everyone's calendar.
The question then becomes whether the Board and
Director spring the project fully formed on the unsuspecting reunion revelers
(who think they are gathering to canoe down the river and drink beer) or create
the framework first, then explain (mostly through e- and snail mail) what it's
all about, why it's the greatest idea since sex, and roughly what it asks of
each family member, followed by the reunion at which it will be discussed and
dissected in greater depth—and approved.
What else might they do at that reunion? Perhaps
renew (or create) bonds, make some collective and individual audio CDs, and see
who wants to organize an Ancestral Family Tree as part of the same, extended
project? (Attendees will also get a chance to heft grandpa's M1 from the War,
marvel at Aunt Belle's six prize-winning quilts, and carefully taste Bachelor
Billy's canned quince jam.)
Also, taking group pictures of the pioneer family
members of the new living family tree will be a popular attraction. (To prove
that those in the photos aren't cardboard, interactive videos of the earliest
generations might also be shot!)
Actually, much more (yet much less evident) is afoot
at family reunions. Roots grow and memories form that last the participants'
lifetimes, with benefits lasting many generations longer. It starts with the
Jones branch challenging the Curtis group in volleyball, or with the kids under
18 taking on the fogies in softball, bingo, or canoe races. It's where
four-person teams, as mixed as possible, collectively head out on a
treasure-scavenger hunt, or where clusters play Charades, Sequence, or cards.
Where the rest talk and frolic and "be" while the kids pose and flirt
and race to the pine tree.
So there's more to family reunions than launching
your living family tree, but it's hard to imagine a more significant gathering
or one with a greater potentially unifying, century-binding effect than that
reunion where the LFT idea and its enabling protocols are introduced, defined,
approved, and set in action.
How that reunion is organized and that presentation
is made is entirely up to you. That's the miracle of leadership, and the person
taking up this mantle is a leader.
Conversely, if one simply ignores that potentially
magical union of a LFT and a reunion, or something like it once they know it is
possible, then much, much more might be lost than the games and tag and the
tale-telling of today. In a growingly atomistic world, any opportunity to weave
a genetic web of love, acceptance, support, and joy like a living family tree
(and all that can come from it), and to give it growing bones and participatory
nutrients to last for centuries, is a singular chance just waiting for a leader
(and dedicated support cadre) to make happen. A family reunion may indeed be an
integral, history-making step in that process.
Still, introducing the idea and setting it to flow at
a family reunion may just not work. If not, then do it
the old-fashioned way: by mail, e-mail, in person, and by CD. Getting the
living family tree planted, now and firmly, is what really counts.
Getting the whole family
involved
How is that done? Probably
by one person seeing the worth and joy of the idea and convincing their kin
that they need a living family tree, or by their stepping up and initiating the
website and completing some key links to get the concept in motion, or a
combination of both.
Sending family members a
copy of this book (bolstered by raging words of enthusiasm) might help.
A family reunion, as just
mentioned, may well be the pivotal point where all see the light.
Whichever path you follow,
your living family tree’s creation and the individual members’ participation
usually take place at three stages: (1) somebody embraces the idea and gets the
core structure up and going, (2) the rest of the family joins in by sharing
their information, and (3) it perpetuates itself into the future, with coming
generations taking the leadership and individually contributing.
…
____________________________________
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