My Family (and no other animals...)

It is often said that we choose our friends but not our family, and I have often bored you with tales of how lucky I have been in respect of my friends, how they've supported me during hard times, helped me enjoy the good times and generally made my life richer and more complete, more fulfilled.

Today I'm going to tell you about my family, immediate and extended, and I will try to tell you why I feel I have been immensely lucky in that respect also. Some of you know me well and know my family, so to you this may be old hat, even boring, but I would urge you to keep quiet and not spoil it for the rest, my myriads of other readers who only know me through this blog.

I was born in the nineteen fifties, a second child and first/only son to my parents. My mother's elder sister also had two children, both girls and correspondingly the same age as us, and we all lived together in my maternal grandfather's house, benevolently supervised and supported by my grandparents. As this was not long after the end of the post WW2 Greek civil war the reasons for this did not revolve solely around familial loyalty and affection but had a lot to do with the difficult times that the Greek economy was going through and the relatively straightened circumstances of our respective families. Yet it worked amazingly well and with very few problems between the families, the children especially; rather, we were like happy brother and sisters. growing up in a crowded house full of love, respect and affection.

The photograph is from my and my contemporary cousin's christening, which in those bygone times took place at home; our respective sisters are at our sides on other end, and the girl in the middle is my 2nd cousin Sandra who grew up to be even more beautiful! The party after the ceremony - I was christened Greek Orthodox - was, I believe, a happy one for all concerned and various other photographs I cannot display for technical reasons show adults in various smiling poses and admiring the two victims (my cousin H. and me). Our parents appear in the important roles of smiling, proud parents.

There are, to my knowledge, no perfect people anywhere and my parents were no exception, but they were decent, honest, believed in fairness and taught us frugality and responsibility, personal and collective, in a simple, easy to understand way. We were taught to never take anything for granted, to work hard to achieve results but to dream as well. Alas we were never taught to be self-promoters, arrogant and aggressive towards others, things that in our family were considered extremely poor form - and, incidentally, I'm only half joking when expressing my regret.

Yet it is not just the past that makes me talk of my family as a blessing, lovely as most of it was. Since this photograph was taken, only a short time ago (ha-ha), I have been fortunate to meet many other members of my family, close relatives and distant; I have seldom, if ever, had any reason to regret meeting them. In fact most of my relatives have also become friends, so we have a strong, double bond which has given - and continues to give me and, I hope, them - a great deal of pleasure. I am pleased and grateful that our relationship has, with most people, strayed far from the formal or staid, the obligatory and the tedious, and is instead a pleasing, living thing! And I keep meeting new ones, young and old...

It is the positive way we have all evolved and our relationship also, the support we still give to one another - and have done for most (but not all) of our lives - and the willingness to try and listen/offer help to the one who was in need. And as my dedicated readers know I have been in serious need over the last few years, so I have had plenty of opportunity to appreciate and report on this first hand! Together with my friends, my family have helped create a protective net of care and affection around me, to ensure my mental and physical well-being and protect me from more extreme hardship, and from myself.

For all this, for the past and the present, for the unwavering trust, kindness and love, I am and will be immensely grateful to the end of my days.