family's pack
yesterday I was thinking. My family as dysfunctional as it seems some days is similar to a wolf pack. Though one has little to do with the other in reality. I woke up thinking along these lines. As a family we may not always get along with each other. But if you take on one of us the whole family gets in on it regardless of the previous spats. We pull together to help each other until the next spat and then all of that gets set aside with the next disaster. The higher archy is matriarical in the mom is foremost top of the heap. Dad having left the pack does not count. The next top dog is the person whose expertise is needed to handle the situation. That position is an agreed upon rotation. EXCEPT when it comes to mom, that is my territory. As the oldest her welfare is my concern. Everything goes through me before it gets to her. My sister is the one who has made it her concern to ensure the rest of the family is looked after except in spats. My brother is the sanity sounding board he is the one with the cool head. Those are the oldest of the eight. Everything else is filtered down as who is able to best handle a particular situation. No one has total control but each has an opinion then comes a general agreement as to what happens and who does what. Does not sound much like a real wolf pack but it comes close I think. Bottom line is that it is a good thing we do not all live in the same place as we would argue and I would have to take charge since they tend to get mom involved in all of the quarrels. Something I loath doing. I do not know why I started thing of this... My idea of a pack mentality is most likely not the same as yours and that is ok. So what. One of my younger sisters washed her hands of the family except for mom but has come together to help out a brother because he is family. Later most-likely she will return to her self imposed exile and that is her choice because I think she is reconsidering her choices. :) Things may not always be as you would like when it comes to family but as long as you can maintain a balance some where there are perks in having them.