Spiritual Family Tree

For SP505, one of our main assignments (due this week, just when I am fighting with a "change of seasons" headcold) is a "genogram".

It's essentially a family tree, with special focus on the spirituality, values, education, relationships, etc. of your ancestors. The idea is that your family system has an impact on who you become, and if you put it on a diagram, maybe you can get insights into how that happened in your particular case.

The profs warned us that it could be upsetting for some people; family dynamics can do that. And it was upsetting to me, a bit. I did not like marking so many relatives as deceased. :(

I also didn't like noting where there was conflict in my family and among my forebears. But it was interesting to see how some behavioral things have trickled down the generations to today, and how my generation made a clean break with some faith tradition things that were long-standing.

I guess that means that, while your family influences you... it doesn't determine you. Each of us still have a chance to overcome negative family dynamics and replace them with new, positive, ones.

If we want to.

(excuse me if I keep this unusually short. I need to go cough, blow my nose, apply more Zicam, and see if I can actually work today.)