Affection

The Courtright clan has a funny way of showing affection. Sometimes, affection takes the form of not bothering others of the clan. For example, it can be months between phone calls and years between visits. In another family this might mean that we don’t really like each other. 

Now, those of you with a highly developed sense of psychology might object to this characterization. Avoidance, or worse, sheer laziness, is not a virtue and is a serious sin in most cultures. And one might postulate that we actually prefer to avoid each other or worse, are too lazy to pick up the phone.  But in this case, we can say with a straight face that letting each other be is a good thing and a form of respect. Really. Not kidding. You say thou doth protest too much?  Hmmm.

To be sure, I am confident that if I called my brother, and suggested that I could use help in the yard or with the car or the roof, for example, he would show up with little fanfare. If a bedroom is offered freely, trips are made with little planning involved. If there is a need, hands and opinions appear.

But our clan is a restless bunch and not particularly needy. We spread out. We go about our business. We are independent once launched. We are fairly opinionated and more than fairly stubborn. We do not suffer fools gladly. And so we tend to like our own counsel best without elaborate consultations. The word stoic is thrown around casually.

However, we are not so self-centered to think that everyone is or should be stoic. In fact, there are those of us who are in possession of evidence that demonstrates that some people are social creatures. True. In fact, it appears factually correct that most people are social creatures. It’s all apparently part of the genetic code. To suggest that the Courtright clan is part of some genetic backwater is, perhaps, scientifically inaccurate to the extent that scientists avoid making subjective judgments. Different traits are just different, and whether they represent an advantageous adaptation or the opposite is only determinable in hindsight, if at all.  We are just different.

Nevertheless, it is understood that there might be some value in acknowledging the majority in at least this aspect of human behavior. Accordingly, and it must be admitted that, even measured against the typical length of our tendency to ruminate, this is an unusually long-winded attempt to say that we will be undertaking to reach out to other members of the clan on a more, mmmmm, regular basis.