We Are Family

To my son Tommy,

    Well as evident by the picture above, you sure know how to party my son.  It is definitely not a true party until someone puts on some star antenna and a "scarf" ribbon and starts singing Corey Haim's "I wear my sunglasses at night".

    Lately every Friday night we have been having a family night.  We get together with some of your grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins and just hang out enjoy each others company.  A couple official names have been proposed for the night  but I think the one that sticks Brazier Family Night (conjunction of Broderick and Frazier and not to be confused with brassieres even though both can be considered to contain a couple boobs).  Everyone has a part and everyone has had influence but I believe we are indebted to your Aunt Debbie for making sure it caught on and happens week in and week out.

    At the same time we were partying last night, devastating national news of a shooting at a movie theater in Colorado was in the back of all our minds.  You see some disturbed young man showed up at the premier of the new Batman movie and shot a bunch of people, killing and/or hurting about 60 people.  No one knows why, or at least not yet.  The news channels will be filled with this story day in and day out.

    So why bring up such extremes?  Bring up such a horrible story and contrast it with a family get together? I wanted to show you how we deal with life.  We have the extreme privilege of being close to our family.  When the world around us is filled with terror and evil, we get together and insulate ourselves with the love of family.  We get together and let our family love protect us and console us.  We can share our thoughts and concerns and sorrow for such things going on in the world and it allows us to take the much needed break from the world's woes.

    Even when problems strike closer to home and have a more personal impact, that is still what we do.  We come together with family, we lean on each other, we cry together, we laugh together, we break bread together.  We look for that moment when a young man comes out in sunglasses and stars and makes us all laugh and release.

    You are blessed with such a large and loving family.  Learn to appreciate them; learn to lean on them; learn to treasure them; learn to help them; learn to be a part of them; learn to care for them; learn to laugh with them; learn to cry with them; learn to grow in their love!  Family makes this life better,

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo