The Principles of Kwanzaa

One by one, the presents were unwrapped, the food was served, the wine was drunk, and the kids hugged me goodbye and returned to their homes.

Even the Roto Rooter guy has come and gone (damn potato peels anyway).

My sugar high is completely worn off and my crash was hard. I'm guessing the next time we will be all home together will be in October, in advance of Matt's wedding.  That's our lives now and a quick reminder that the alternative is for them to be watching TV in the basement is all I need to slap me back to our wonderful reality.

There are still things to celebrate - they want to visit and say as much.  They refer to our home as "home" and describe it not unlike a destination retreat.  That makes this mama smile.

It's time to for me to get a move on - I don't wear pathetic well - what's next up?

Well, Kwanzaa started today and while I have zero ties to an African heritage and I'm not a big fan of week-long celebrations (three days of eating too much while sleeping and exercising too little has contributed a bit to my situational mood today), I do find the seven principles interesting:

Unity - to strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Self-determination - to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Collective Work and Responsibility - To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.

Cooperative Economics - To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Purpose - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Creativity - To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Faith - To believe with all our hearts in God, our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Now that I'm thinking about it, these same principles are ones that I've encouraged in our home, over the years, in an unwritten way.  And maybe that's why it is so much fun when we are together, and why it's so bittersweet when it's time to say goodbye.