Yay! Its Christmas Time again! Good cheers all around, and pass us that bottle next why doncha?! Humanity huddles together around the firelight, sharing the warmth against a cold night of winter snows.
Glad to be together, kith and kin. There for each other against the vicissitudes of Life. Knit together like a comfortable wool sweater. You look at each other and smile, knowing with a silent nod, we take care of own. Because we are a Family.
Indeed a very large family, stretched across all latitudes from pole to pole. And while there may seem to be a central hearth decorated for the season and around which faces become familiar, the greatest strength of any family is owed to its breadth and depth.
There are many more souls than only those which can be picked out in the glow of the firelight whose names, if not faces, are more familiar to us. Here is the beating heart of this Family, held in the palm of your hand like a mouse. A somewhat sticky, greasy mouse that is a little tacky when you let go of it, right?
This hearth and close company around it are a foundational testament to an unspoken oath of support we offer each other. Yet out tending the grain in the fields, across the flocked meadows and deep through dread forests are even more family. We who look to the center for our daily news-stream while tending our fields and flocks, or stalking fell beasts.
Yin & yang thing, you know.
A far-flung family, representing nearly every walk of life. Yet not so far-flung that at a moment's notice is able, at need, to manifest remarkable effects in both politics as well as personal lives. When the need of a family member becomes known, those far-flung and unfamiliar brothers and sisters send up what they can (never doubt it), often without hanging out around the fireplace to say much of anything at all. Maybe share an ale and a bowl, then go.
Busy tending flocks of fell beasts you know. Where do you think that bounty comes from?
Perhaps you might not even know they were there at all, taken aback by the instant bounty that pours forth like a flood. Upticks by the thousands from those able to, without any thought or need of acknowledgement. An organic "What goes around, comes around" so shut up and don't bogart that joint my friend.
I am Patrick Twofires Leathersmith and this is My Family Too.
edit: if this is going to turn into a night of long knives, please be sure you are replying to the proper diarist.