(From Rob) McFarland Reunion: McThoughts about our Family
Our fabulous (Great) Aunties, Donna and Marilyn, organized one of our all-too-rare McFarland Mini Mini Mini Reunions at a local park.
"What does it mean to be a McFarland?" Mary Ann wanted to know.
Well..for my dear Aunties it means trying everything they can to make the meeting seem welcoming and non-threatening so that the Black Sheep will come. I know this because I am the eldest son of the Black Sheep. Rog is not really that agoraphobic, he works with 30+ froofy college students ever single day. They worship him and regularly ask me how much fun it must be to be Roger's son. My Dad is a pleasant sort, if you can make it past the intolerable puns. But family fests are just somehow too...to laden with the sort of moments that shake him down to the sub-strata of his very being. So none of his sibs had more offspring there than good old Rog, but he sat at home and...drumroll please...did geneology.
That makes "What is a McFarland" trait #1: being part of a loving but always potentially volatile set of relationships. Dad shows up on his own terms, with a cookbook for MA or a zucchini in a bag. Typical McFarland. Still--we are all very often thrilled to see each other. Often.
McFarland trait #2: Check out those ears on Fluffy (oh, stupid nicknames are trait #3). Are those vintage Grandpa Oscar or what? The trait is not the ears--it is the physical, emotional, visceral link to Granddad whose charming, upbeat, smiling, over-controlling but heartfelt love still remains one of the central pillars of our emotional lives. There were no fewer than three great-grandkids named after him at this reunion, including our own smiley Josiah Oscar. With those ears!!!
Trait #4: A weakness for phenomenal women. This is, of course, our Oma, who still masters at least three of her seven languages even as she sinks into Alzheimers. She has recently found Love in the Lockdown Unit. Her new luva is named George, but she calls him Oscar for short. If I remind her that she already had a husband named Oscar, she points out that she had a cat named George. Checkmate! My Aunties are afraid that she and George will get a little too jiggy there in the enhanced-care facility. My reaction--you gotta get it where you can. She's already slipped back down out of the age of accountability, so consider it a Mitzvah, I say. Thoughts?
McFarland Trait #5: lack of physical agility. Thank heavens that we are breeding that out. The Jonses, the Bodens and the Bickmores have succeeded most admirably, and they have some excellent athletes to show for it. And the rest of us--like Sebi here, and Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dumber flanking Oma in the last picture --still have fun when being shown up by their sleeker athletic cousins.
Trait #6: Surprise and a kind of regret--when we get together, we are reminded what a phenomenal group of fun people the Macs are, and we regret not doing this more often. What trait is that exactly--underestimating ourselves? Forgetfulness? Recognizing all that we owe to these people who helped raise us and make us who we are?
Trait #7: Whatever McFarlands are, isn't it nice that there are so many of us, and that no matter how we grow, there are still larger-than life personalities that pop up all over the place, in all of these wacky, amazing kids. Nobody has stories like Grandpa Oscar--with his fainting chickens, barnyard races and "Baptizing thousands from one baptism" on his mission, but when Sebi (Or Alyssa or Oscar or Jesse or Jessie or Jake or Josh or Hanna or Hannah....) is 70, who knows what s/he'll tell our future (Great) grandkids?
"What does it mean to be a McFarland?" Mary Ann wanted to know.
Well..for my dear Aunties it means trying everything they can to make the meeting seem welcoming and non-threatening so that the Black Sheep will come. I know this because I am the eldest son of the Black Sheep. Rog is not really that agoraphobic, he works with 30+ froofy college students ever single day. They worship him and regularly ask me how much fun it must be to be Roger's son. My Dad is a pleasant sort, if you can make it past the intolerable puns. But family fests are just somehow too...to laden with the sort of moments that shake him down to the sub-strata of his very being. So none of his sibs had more offspring there than good old Rog, but he sat at home and...drumroll please...did geneology.
That makes "What is a McFarland" trait #1: being part of a loving but always potentially volatile set of relationships. Dad shows up on his own terms, with a cookbook for MA or a zucchini in a bag. Typical McFarland. Still--we are all very often thrilled to see each other. Often.
McFarland trait #2: Check out those ears on Fluffy (oh, stupid nicknames are trait #3). Are those vintage Grandpa Oscar or what? The trait is not the ears--it is the physical, emotional, visceral link to Granddad whose charming, upbeat, smiling, over-controlling but heartfelt love still remains one of the central pillars of our emotional lives. There were no fewer than three great-grandkids named after him at this reunion, including our own smiley Josiah Oscar. With those ears!!!
Trait #4: A weakness for phenomenal women. This is, of course, our Oma, who still masters at least three of her seven languages even as she sinks into Alzheimers. She has recently found Love in the Lockdown Unit. Her new luva is named George, but she calls him Oscar for short. If I remind her that she already had a husband named Oscar, she points out that she had a cat named George. Checkmate! My Aunties are afraid that she and George will get a little too jiggy there in the enhanced-care facility. My reaction--you gotta get it where you can. She's already slipped back down out of the age of accountability, so consider it a Mitzvah, I say. Thoughts? 
McFarland Trait #5: lack of physical agility. Thank heavens that we are breeding that out. The Jonses, the Bodens and the Bickmores have succeeded most admirably, and they have some excellent athletes to show for it. And the rest of us--like Sebi here, and Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dumber flanking Oma in the last picture --still have fun when being shown up by their sleeker athletic cousins. 
Trait #6: Surprise and a kind of regret--when we get together, we are reminded what a phenomenal group of fun people the Macs are, and we regret not doing this more often. What trait is that exactly--underestimating ourselves? Forgetfulness? Recognizing all that we owe to these people who helped raise us and make us who we are? 
Trait #7: Whatever McFarlands are, isn't it nice that there are so many of us, and that no matter how we grow, there are still larger-than life personalities that pop up all over the place, in all of these wacky, amazing kids. Nobody has stories like Grandpa Oscar--with his fainting chickens, barnyard races and "Baptizing thousands from one baptism" on his mission, but when Sebi (Or Alyssa or Oscar or Jesse or Jessie or Jake or Josh or Hanna or Hannah....) is 70, who knows what s/he'll tell our future (Great) grandkids?
Comments
You are hilarious.