this is the tagline for Lake Wobegon, from garrison keillor's "Prairie Home Companion," a minnesota radio show. lake wobegon is a fictional town based on keillor's childhood in our lovely, northern-midwestern state. i always liked this tagline because (duh) i think it's true about minnesota, but i suppose most people are over-proud of their home states. certainly, there are ugly men in minnesota. and i've known some decidedly average kids, too.
but i digress.
coming home, to your old home, the one where you grew up and made all of those irreversible childhood and adolescent decisions, where you climbed trees and swam and skated and trick-or-treated, where you smoked pot for the first time and later sneaked out of your house, where you had your first kiss (etc) and where you yelled back at your parents and watched your siblings go from babies to kids to teenagers to young adults ... this is always tough and relaxing at the same time.
at home, with your family, you are always YOU, the one you are, the one you think (HOPE) you've grown away from. people love reminding you of when you ______ (e.g., ran away to hide, crying/sulking, when everyone else was taking a family picture that one trip to michigan). but the trauma of remembering everything you did wrong to yourself, to those who love you more than anyone in the world, is tempered by the relaxation that comes from just being yourself. i guess most people are "themselves" all the time, sure (me? i'm never sure). but your family KNOWS YOU, like hoover's FBI knew civil rights leaders, but more so. i wear less make-up around my family, i get happy when they're happy, angry when they're angry. i don't care if i look fat in something, and i tell my family EVERYTHING.
here's something about my family (mom, dad, step-mom, siblings): they're VERY political. like, borderline crazy-political. conspiracy theories? "they're not conspiracies when they're true, sylvia." my family is anti-establishment, anti-republican, anti-war, anti-hate, anti-chain-store, anti-SUV, anti-HMO, anti-religion (with exceptions for quakers and buddhists), and above all: ANTI-NORMAL.
they're also a very creative bunch, from painting to writing to cool crafts to very unusual takes on home decorating and gardening. (e.g., my step-mom has collected animal skulls for years, and tried to make a mailbox where you opened the deer jaw/mouth to open the box. when this proved logistically impossible, she just attached the whole skull to the top of the mailbox, where it remained for years before breaking off somehow. now she does these fabulous oil paintings almost compulsively, and they're breathtaking).
i'm a little embarrassed that while home i didn't attend the peace rallies with my dad and sister. after a week of running all over the twin cities and having a fabulous time seeing MN sights with a friend visiting from canada, i didn't want to stand outside in the cold (with said tourist friend) waving a peace flag and demanding the end to the war in iraq. i wish i had gone. i wish i wasn't lazy and was more proactive, was more involved in changing the world. maybe i will try harder this year (well, i'm rooting for obama and will do campaign work for him once he gets the nomination -- but this isn't enough).
the gifts from my family this year were the same gifts i get every time i go home: i am humbled. i am moved often, and shaken to tears by this exchange or that sad/beautiful piece of news. i am inspired. i am encouraged. i am loved (and then wish to be more loving in return). so, here's to my family -- all of them, those in minneapolis and duluth and texas and michigan and france and japan and everywhere else: THANK YOU with all my heart and soul and viscera and bones and cells. thank you for being such a dear, unique, wonderful bunch.
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