Hirpsonal

Every family has their own bag of crap deal with. This may not sound like some great revelation, but for me it kind of is. For years I felt I was related to what I described, both in jest and seriously, as the Jewish Kennedy’s. There’s aside of my family that I always felt could do no wrong. Even this blog is linked, literally, to their successes. As a kid I often bragged about their successes to the point one might have thought they hired a minor to handle their publicity. All my friends knew my Uncle designed their dad’s Z, and today my friends know when they are seeing an ad on television that my cousin did. Just as they know that my other cousin is both a published writer and a teacher in a small LA community, Beverly Hills. If I made anyone a mix CD, it certainly contained songs by both cousins.

But for me, their successes were deeper than just what I could brag about. When I see them, it’s almost like watching great friends hang out more than watching parents and kids. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. Like many families, our events often included some competition: Water volleyball, touch football in a field on a cold Minnesota fall night, tennis (when Americans played), basketball and heated debates. Being that it’s our nature to be competitive; I couldn’t help but compare my side of the family against that side. It isn’t that I came up in a broken horrible family, but the contrast was apparent. Where they went to world class universities and left their marks, I struggled to graduate high school and spent less time in college than Lohan has spent in rehab. Where they have these exciting, dreams come true careers, I spend most of my days daydreaming at work. Their spouses are summer blockbusters with the rest of the family, the spouses my siblings choose were, um, acquired tastes.

But last night I was informed, without any real detail, that they aren’t without their own family business. And I found myself oddly relieved. The perception I had was unfair to both them, and my self. It reminded me that I do call them the Jewish Kennedy’s, and that Kennedy family was far from perfect. As successful, charming, engaging and impressive they are, they aren’t without their own flaws.