“How you feel about your family is a complicated thing… Deep down, you always love them.”
– Marley, Home Alone

This is just a snippet from a conversation between Marley, a grandfatherly man, and his neighbor Kevin, a young boy.

The boy is regretting how he’s behaved towards his family, and the grandfather is regretting how sour things are between him and his son. In the boy’s case, he’s found himself unexpected parted from his family, and in the grandfather’s case, he and his son haven’t spoken for years because they both lost their tempers. The separation is rather painful, but this conversation helps both of them deal with their issues a bit.

In Marley’s case, Kevin advises him to call his son and try to reconcile in the spirit of Christmas. Marley is man enough to admit he’s a bit afraid of being refused, but Kevin urges him onward. If he tries, it might work, or maybe not, but at least he’ll know. When the two part ways, Marley simply says, “We’ll see what happens.” And there’s a note of hope and courage.

As it happens, it works out. The movie ends with families reuniting and reconciling. How’s that for a Merry Christmas, eh? 🙂

Of course, there will still be issues ahead. There will almost always be something to fight about, but what’s that really matter? It’s family. It’s worth it.

Family can fight, and hurt each other, and resent each other at times. Family can do and feel most everything. There can be so many aspects to family relationships, because we, as humans, are complicated creatures, and we’re all thrown together with all our issues, individual and shared. At the very core of things, however, we’re family. That’s a powerful bond of love, even when it’s been discarded.

Love, and the bonds it creates, can withstand being hammered, twisted, crushed, stretched, burned, frozen, drowned, tied into knots, cast aside, even forgotten, and pretty much anything else.

Anger, sorrow, bitterness… these may try to bury love, but they simply can’t match it, and they certainly can’t destroy it. Love endures most anything.

Yes, love endures.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. It doesn’t mean we should give our family limitless leave. It just means that love is powerful and resilient, and worth taking a risk for, especially with family.

I know that whatever problems we’ve had in my family, and whatever problems I am sure we’ll have in the future, I love my family, and I always will.