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21st Century Family
- Catherine Bott
- Jan 21
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
I’m smack dab in the middle of binging on an older Netflix cable series entitled “Suits”. This series revolves around a very large law firm with seven or eight main characters who are brilliant lawyers/paralegals and secretaries who face unique legal issues along with intense human challenges and frailties.
Throughout the series the word family surfaces in almost every episode. The “family” theme is so prevalent and uniquely applied that three quarters through the series I actually looked up the word ‘family’. The definitions I found were so simple… 1) a set of relatives 2) a group of related plants, animals, or things 3) a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit - Well, you get the picture.
These “textbook” definitions of family seem very archaic to me. I know very few people whose “family” even remotely fits in the confines of the above definitions. In fact, all the definitions I could find limited the definitions of family with words like “related” (blood, DNA), “alike” or “common stock”. With these definitions, I guess my husband’s daughter was right when she told me shortly after our marriage that “I’m not their family, I’m just my father’s wife”.
Let me tell you about my husband’s “family”. Howard had two daughters ages eight and eleven when he married wife number two who had two young sons around the same ages. Howard raised those two boys as if they were his own. They all hover around the fifty-year-old mark these days. The boys call him Dad. One of the boys had three children by as many women. They all refer to Howard as grandpa. The other son married a woman with two children (would they be step-step grandchildren?) who refer to Howard as grandpa. The older son, the one with the three children (remember no one is technically related to Howard) married a woman with a son whom Howard also considers a grandson - and he calls Howard gramps. So, let’s see. Howard is not technically related to these two grown boys by virtue of blood/DNA, yet he has five of their kids calling him grandpa. Did I mention the stepson’s boys sometimes refer to me, the third wife, as Mom?
Throughout the “Suits” program, the word family is used to remind the characters and the viewers of the power of a family mind set to stick together through thick and thin, regardless of their DNA.
I’m so confused! When is Oxford, Merriam Webster or even the web dictionary going to move into the twenty first century and redefine the word family to “a group of people who have an unwritten code to love and protect, who have permission to get angry and frustrated with those they believe in and protect each other regardless of blood or DNA”. Could we actually change the world with a change of definition of one little word? After all, in the big picture, all the world is your family.
Affirmation: I see the world as my family.
(Originally Published 9/19/2024)
“I'm Catherine Wilcox, working to help others see that God is in all things, all the time, through conscious change and self-healing.”
If you have found this message enlightening, please send it to one friend. This action will help my vision of a more enlightened species to help usher in the new healing Age of Aquarius.
Catherine Wilcox is a Conscious Change Coach, Mentor, emotional intuitive and Writer. If you like what you read here, then you may enjoy one of her Published Books:
· God is in the Details 2.0 (COMING SOON)
· Sacred Space (COMING SOON)
· Sacred Relationship (COMING SOON)
**Catherine’s latest Book, The New Stone Age, Crystal Data for the 21st Century, contains ten chapters of information designed to help the novice and intermediate crystologist obtain the secrets to working with crystals to help the four mind-bodies balance chaotic energy.
· Mineral Speak, the Language of Minerals - (COMING SOON).
· Planet Speak: The Language of Planets – (COMING SOON)
· Cosmic Speak: The Language of the Cosmos – (COMING SOON)
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