Family

I had one of my rare few busy days today.   Actually, Christmas Day was busy, but I spent more time away from home today.  I was, like many other Americans this time of the year, at a family gathering.  My partner was at home recuperating from oral surgery, so I made the 90 minute drive to my father's house.  Altogether, there were eight of us there for an early dinner -- not a large gathering by most people's standards, but for our family, this was one of the largest since my brother's wedding this past April.

As these sorts of events go, I suspect it was no more or less interesting or eventful than any other family gathering.  There was a major announcement (my Dad is getting married), plenty of liquor consumed, lots of story telling and laughing and, of course, things said when others were not in the room to defend themselves (I will assume I made it into that category as I was the first to leave Dad's home tonight).

Our family, very wisely, steered away from polite conversation "no-no"'s: politics and religion.  I was fairly close today to starting one of those "no-no" conversations when the topic turned to unemployment (including me, 3 of the 8 of us are unwillingly or have been unwillingly unemployed at some time this year).

Kind of made me wonder what the topics of conversation may have been at Pastor Rick Warren's house gatherings this week.  On the one hand, he was honored with being asked to give the Invocation at next month's Inauguration.  On the other, he felt compelled at his church's website to post an over 20 minute monologue on the backlash he received from the LGBT community over his opinions on LGBT people and our assertion of the right to marry, one which was quashed last month when Proposition 8 was passed.

Rather than be the ump-teenth blogger to register an opinion about all of this, I will let columnist Frank Rich of the New York Times have the final say.  My hope is this the final say about this until Inauguration Day, where my hope is the Invocation will be befitting of this historic event yet as memorable as previous Invocations made by the Grahams.