Family

1. Family. A group of people gathered around a dinner table saying grace. A father and mother taking a walk with their children in the park. Two brothers playing catch in their yard. This group of people fit together, not always harmoniously, but unified as one. They care about each other, and they are willing to support their family members in the darkest of times. Families are such wonderful things because they are founded on the greatest feeling in the world: love. Love brings people together and helps them spread their love through their children. This emotion that draws families together is a wonderful, yet dangerously powerful thing that can create strong families or ravage and tear some apart. The ideal family is one which supports each other, loves each other, and constantly learns from each others' mistakes. Unfortunately, this world is not always ideal. The perfect family that is often portrayed is not always the case. Unfortunately, some families break apart, drift away, and lose sight of what is important in their relationships. Hopefully, with the love and support from its other members, a family will always find ways to still support each other, despite loss and alienation. This is what is so wonderful about a family. Even through their most challenging times, families can find ways to persevere and come back to the core of what being in a family is all about: love.

2. In Tuesdays With Morrie, Morrie teaches Mitch the important lesson that family is the most important thing in one's life. Morrie says, "The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family... If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. " Morrie has really learned this from experience because without being able to rely on his family, he would not survive because he depends on them for everything. After hearing this, Mitch really thinks about his life, and what is really important in it. All the material things, all the money, all the famous people he's met, that is not what will be there for him in his final hours. He realizes that without a family and all the emotions that come with it, his life is not fulfilled. He writes, "So the TV was the same old model, the car that Charlotte drove was the same model, the dishes and the silverware and the towels-- all the same. And yet the house had changed so drastically. It had filled with love and teaching and communication. It had filled with friendship and family and honesty and tears.... it had become in a very real way, a wealthy home, even though Morrie's bank account was rapidly depleting." This segment shows that Mitch has finally realized that the emotions of compassion, friendship, and the love of a family are the real things that one needs in life. The material items that he has gained can't even begin to measure up to the truest and deepest emotions known to man. The relationships in a family are the most valued relationships with other people that one can have in life.

3. I agree with what these quotes are saying and I definitely believe that one's family is more important that all the things that money and fame can attain. Your family is who will stick with you to the end, not any of your material goods. The material possessions might seems bright and interesting at first, yet there will always be something newer and cooler that ups what you already have. There is no such thing in family. You accept the differences of those around you, love who you have, and hopefully never wish for anything else.

4. Finally, my questions for you, the reader, are as follows: What is your definition of family? What do you think are the deepest bonds and emotions shared within a family?