{"id":25271,"date":"2023-08-22T05:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=25271"},"modified":"2023-08-21T18:31:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T22:31:25","slug":"22aug2023-scenes-from-a-family-gathering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/22\/22aug2023-scenes-from-a-family-gathering\/","title":{"rendered":"22AUG2023 \u2013 Scenes from a Family Gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Christmas Cooking, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\\2.8 macro lens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Driving from a rural area toward a megalopolis is almost always a frustrating experience.\u00a0 The closer you get to the heart of darkness, the worse the traffic becomes and the more likely it is that you will accidentally cross the event horizon and be sucked in, never to break free of the bumper-to-bumper traffic of the black hole collapse.\u00a0 Or so it seems to me.<\/p>\n

By comparison driving in the reverse direction, away from the beast, feels like a continuously increasing sense of relief as the road and the entrances become less and less congested and the craziest of the homicidal drivers are left behind or at least no longer have the traffic density needed to ensure maximum mayhem.<\/p>\n

Now all of that was true yesterday as I arrived and departed from the party that I travelled to.\u00a0 But despite the tension of defying the human density gradient around the suburbs of Gotham City I was sorry that the party couldn\u2019t have been extended indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Everything about the gathering was congenial.\u00a0 It was almost the entire family.\u00a0 And that\u2019s no mean feat.\u00a0 We are many and we are scattered much more than in the past.\u00a0 And Sunday is a tough day for travelling.\u00a0 Saturday being the optimal day to allow for recovery before work resumes.<\/p>\n

And everyone there was splendidly sociable.\u00a0 The talk was the usual mixture of family events, politics, current events and reminiscing about crazier things and planning for crazier things.\u00a0 And I learned things that I had never known about people I know very well.\u00a0 And I saw what the youngest generation is starting to look like when they socialize.\u00a0 And despite all the dire warnings and predictions they seemed quite healthy and normal.<\/p>\n

Of course, food is always a highly important component of one of these shindigs and the hostess was extremely wise in her choices and provisioning.\u00a0 There were several completely different themes with respect to the menu and there was never any danger of running out of the favorites which is always comforting.\u00a0 I will admit that I no longer make the impact on the buffet table that I used to.\u00a0 And that is necessary.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t have survived my former exploits as a trencherman.\u00a0 But I still grazed high and low and tried a bit of everything.\u00a0 Wonderful.<\/p>\n

But the highlight is when the old bulls stagger into a corner, collapse into a circle of chairs and start pontificating about what\u2019s wrong with the world and what we should do about it.\u00a0 And eventually we come to agreement that things are going to go to hell no matter what we say or do and then we come to agreement that at least the world has us in it to make it a world worth living in.\u00a0 Now this was what I remember when the old bulls were my father\u2019s and my grandfather\u2019s generations laying down the law and telling us what was wrong with my generation.\u00a0 And now, heaven help me, I\u2019m at my grandfather\u2019s age and making my last speeches before shuffling off the stage permanently.\u00a0 What a strange thing time is.<\/p>\n

And just in time the cake and coffee are served and we lapse into a warm glow of caffeine and pastry ingredients.\u00a0 And all too soon it\u2019s time to go.\u00a0 We need to leave before it\u2019s too late to make the drive back.\u00a0 But of course, there is at least a half hour of goodbyes, to each and every one.\u00a0 Back slapping and hugs and hand shakes for one and all and then last-minute details remembered and plans for the next gathering.\u00a0 And then we\u2019re on the road and headed home.\u00a0 But the glow from the party is still with us.\u00a0 We talk about what we\u2019ve heard and seen.\u00a0 We talk about those who couldn\u2019t make it and those who are gone.\u00a0 But it\u2019s all a happy feeling.\u00a0 A good feeling.<\/p>\n

The country and the world have gone straight to hell.\u00a0 There\u2019s no denying it.\u00a0 But good things still exist.\u00a0 And the best of those things is family, is the humanness of family.\u00a0 The ties that bind and the hope for a future and the precious, priceless treasure of the young in our midst.<\/p>\n

The world is not all ruin and depravity.\u00a0 There is hope.\u00a0 And I can see it when we get together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driving from a rural area toward a megalopolis is almost always a frustrating experience.\u00a0 The closer you get to the heart of darkness, the worse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,818,1263,2860],"tags":[83,2093,2341],"class_list":["post-25271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reclaiming-the-family","tag-family","tag-reclaiming-the-family","tag-traditional-family"],"yoast_head":"\n22AUG2023 \u2013 Scenes from a Family Gathering - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/22\/22aug2023-scenes-from-a-family-gathering\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"22AUG2023 \u2013 Scenes from a Family Gathering - 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