A few nights ago after death by ICD-10 seminar I spent a few hours with male friends drafting for this up coming NFL fantasy football season. This is the first time I have done a live draft though I have played fantasy football for years and I LOVE IT! They are all LDS though that hardly matters. All are good men and this year they expanded their draft to include me. I have played flag football with some of them (poorly--me not them), played countless hours of basketball (poorly--me not them), gone to Ranger games with them and ate the Choomungus together and regret it every minute since, spent hours in Church meetings with some of them, some have moved away and have come back in town short term to work, some moved just a town away, some have lived in the same place for years, one was a Bishop who counseled me through a divorce and others have shared some of the same kind of personal grief I have. Some are new friends. One of them I was even his 11 year old Scout leader for like 9 months. I bet he doesn't even remember that.
It was good to be around men who are funny, can cleanly joke, are inclusive of an old man like me (they are all considerably younger than me) and like the same things I do though I just may do them much slower than them.
I am not your typical guy. And definitely not your typical Mormon. I am pretty blunt, pretty bold and pretty honest especially when it comes to my own shortcomings. These men are the same.
I almost venture to say that my personal definition of what family is
and who family is has changed. I have never lived very close to my blood family
and while that has made me appreciate them that much more, ward family,
Nauvoo family, neighborhood family, friends family have become part of who my
family is.
I have a non-nuclear family myself so why shouldn't be non-blood family be any different?
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