The Family!(September 2000)

I went to Cleveland for a festival with some friends of mine. At this festival of food, we saw a very wise man by the name of Alice Cooper. Having a theatrical stage full of garbage, rotting cars, dead bodies, and filth... Mr. Cooper taught all observers about "This Brutal Planet."

Our group decided to get there early. Standing in front of the stage for over 4 hours, our group began developing a strange bond with the surrounding humans. Without exchanging words at first, we listened to each other's conversations giving simple smiles and laughs. Standing there so long, our group and the two groups closest to us started a relationship of respect.

If anyone left their position of territory, our new family of three separate groups started protecting each other's position. Even when one of the strangers had a spider crawling on his back, I grabbed it from his shoulder and tossed it to the ground. We all started looking out for each other! Even though we didn't know each other's names, a caring relationship already developed.

About five minutes before Alice Cooper went on stage, a drunken woman came into our family. She destroyed the peace and didn't have any respect for the beautiful relationship that miraculously developed. No one in our new family wanted her. It wasn't because she was drunk, or that she was annoying. It was because she didn't have the respect we all had for each other. She lacked the respect that made the family.

It doesn't happen often, but justice took it's place that night. Our togetherness including the security guards, got rid of the disgraceful disrespectful disease that this woman had. That's when I realized what a family was.

A family isn't about blood, religion, nationality, views or beliefs. A family is all about protection and the respect for each other. I hope others will take me into their family and help me learn, because I'd do the same for them. But, without having respect for each other, a family can not exist in this world. Just something I thought of while seeing Alice Cooper that I want to share with you. That's all.

An Autograph Alice Cooper signed when he was visiting a near by haunted house

Alice Cooper money I grabbed from the stage at the show

(Human Growth and Development)
(Summer 2001)

(15 traits to a healthy family)
Survey by Curran who interviewed 551 professionals who work with families to try and determine the factors that they felt make up a
"Healthy Family"

1.Communicates and listens.

2.Affirms and supports one another.

3.Teaches respect for others.

4.Develops a sense of trust.

5.Has a sense of play and humor.

6.Exhibits a sense of shared responsibility.

7.Teaches a sense of right and wrong.

8.Has a strong sense of family in which rituals and traditions abound.

9.Has a balance of interaction among members.

10.Has a shared religious core.

11.Respects the privacy of one another.

12.Values service to others.

13.Fosters family table time and conversation.

14.Shares leisure time.

15.Admits to and seeks help with problems.