Progress: Little by Little

The Littles were a big family. I know. I went to their family reunion last year.  Must have had close to two hundred and fifty people there. It was anything but little at the Littles.

There were the Littles from Texas.  The Littles from Arkansas.  The Littles from Tennessee and Kentucky and Ohio.  And the Littles for the Virginias, the regular one and the one out west.  Same’s true of the two Carolinas.  Fact is, I think there were Littles from about every state in the Union.

There were old Littles. Young Littles. Littles on the right and Littles on the left and and Littles stuck somewhere in between.  Most Littles had college educations.  Most had jobs, except the kids just graduating from college, then they were, like everybody else, they were just looking for anything. And of course, living at home.

The Littles had married into families with names like Rose, Chandler, Harrison, Murphy, Taylor, Delongshield and Higgens. There was one Little who had even married a German fellow and I never did catch his name.  But everyone called him Otto.

So why are the Littles so important?  I found it interesting that in a family this large and this spread out, they were a good representation of America. There were at least three mixed racial couples.  Two gay couples (one of the Harrisons may be too, but no one knew for sure). There were two American natives in the family and like I said a German.

They worshiped in the Lutheran church and in the Catholic church. Two families were Baptist and three were Methodist – this was the first family reunion I had ever been to where Methodist actually outnumbered Baptist.  There were several Littles on the fence about the whole God thing and two who were out and out atheists. There was even a Unitarian.

The Littles made their living with their hands. They farmed. They ran shops. They built furniture, they repaired cars and ran pharmacies and two were doctors: one the MD kind who delivered babies and the other a PhD who taught classical civilization history at a small private school in Kansas. Littles owned horses and taught riding, others owned cows and produced milk.  Three played stringed instrument s (which is why I was there to begin with) and they were quite good. One Little ran a seamstress shop and another made hand-carved toys. (Imagine that, a toy made n the U.S.A.) Three young ones worked in computers and one of them was the inventor of some video game. (He lived in California, of course.)

One of the Littles had worked in the White House, but I forgot for which President. She ran statistics for the political side of the business.  After the stint in DC, she went to work for P&G doing research for soap. (Which gets you whites whiter, Tide or Cheer?)

So at one point it got quiet, right before we were to have the afternoon meal, and the matriarch of the family, Willa Mae who was close to 96 was handed a mic and asked to say a few words. I loved what she said.

“We’ve done it.  We have made it through another year.  We only lost Hurbert.  [I think that was her brother.] So we did good.  And look at all the young ‘uns.  My how we have grown. Don’t know how much longer I’ll be making this little get together, so I just wanted to say this. Take care of those around you.  Love them. Treat them with kindness and be decent to them. Don’t let quarrels spoil your friendships. You are family. We are Littles. And remember, you are very lucky to be here, right here, at this place, at this time, under this sky. Have fun and come back next year. I know I am gonna try. “

Got thinking about her address to the Little nation and I thought, you know, that would be a good salutation for all Americans.  To take care of each other.  Love one another and be decent and kind to each other. After all, we are one family. We are Americans. Yes, and we, too, are very, very lucky to be here. Right now. At this time.

I want to thank Willa Mae for reminding me of that. All too often I get caught up in the turmoil of the day and the headlines of the hour and I don’t take time to wish all of you a good day.  Even when I don’t agree with you, I respect your right to be wrong. I respect your right to say it as you please.  And I respect your right to disagree with me. And most of all, I like you. You’re part of my extended family. Together, we are Americans. For good, for bad, till death us do part.

So as Willa Mae suggested, let’s have fun. I know I’m gonna try.