A family portrait depicts each element arrayed and seizes the convergence. Like this one above, a selfie flashed where her parents trust the ribaldry and sea shanties ahead to lead to treasure but Lana is definitely spooked by a skull and bones speaking.
Then we dropped into the deep.
Before Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Supreme Allied Commander and the 34th President of the United States, he was the third of seven brothers in Abilene, Kansas. I heard he wrote in his memoirs that the boys were taught each member was vital to their family’s function and thriving, so that if any of them were gone, that family would cease to exist and a new one would emerge in its place, changed, and that family would have to learn anew to rely on each other. This was true even—and maybe especially—in regards to the fifth Eisenhower brother, Paul Dawson, who died when he was ten months old.
I didn’t read the memoir myself so this is all hearsay, but the Eisenhower family’s maxim seared in audibly, was reiterated firsthand in marrying Mindy, then again when she gave birth to Lana, then again when Mindy died. The character and shape of a family can build and withstand decades adding all the time or collapse so fast.
I told Lana on the first morning after her momma left this was our new family and each of us was vital to the other. She nodded, though I doubt she consciously recalls, and I’m sure I spoke more to galvanize myself. Then I picked her up to say goodbye to the family we were.
Eight years on our small oath holds though there are still grand hopes of increasing our number again someday. To forge further unions. Optimism springs—desire from some deep source—though my personal current also feels clouded by worn paths and patterns and the tentacle sting of failure we divers polish like onyx.
But I would just like to remind you real quick: you gotta get down deep to find pearls!
Love this piece, Jordan. The moment of Dad telling Lana about their family on the morning after losing Mindy was beautiful. I loved the "tentacle sting of failure we divers polish like onyx" line.
I love this