A ‘Community of Families’ – The Unique Tapestry of American-ism

Today, my wife and I, over our morning coffees, tried to solve a math problem my wife’s sister and brother-in-law sent us, via snapchat, to puzzle over.

As we were sipping our coffees, debating our different approaches to solving it (and the final answer), I was suddenly struck by the American-ism of it all. Us – my wife’s family, my family, our family, the internet with our coffee, puzzle challenges…all of it…a unique weave of that “-ism” – OUR unique weave.

We, as Americans, pride ourselves on being unlike all the other countries in the world. And we are. Yet, we forget that our unique “-ism” is spun from threads of EACH of those countries.

The unique blending of her ancestors and mine from Ireland, Native America, Germany, England, and France – countries historically in conflict with one another – form the people we are and, united by marriage, further blend us into a unique “community of family.”

Each “community of family” in America, like ours, is formed from those disparate threads from all over the world, and each thread was and is a needed and necessary part of our weave.

Because, together, our “communities of families,” formed our rich history, built our traditions, and most importantly – united – this uncommon weave of threads into one ‘COMMUNITY.’

The basics of education common to each of us regardless of our social levels and/or religious preferences, the promise of a minority ‘community’s‘ rights within the aegis of the majority’s domination, and the role and uncommon availability of technology – all form just some of the special stitches that separately worked together to help us weave a tapestry that doesn’t depict one social level, one race, one religion, one gender/sexual preference, or even one age-group.

Instead, all of them are a part of the ancillary threads in each community of family that, together with those threads of the world, form our one, large ‘Community of Family.‘ 

This, our tapestry, is truly a unique, loose weave of the World. 

Our American-ism.

Food for thought.

Mac