union first, then reunion

so... the last time I was about to run off to Idaho, I gave you a list of ideas and drafts and thoughts which I hadn't yet nurtured into real, fully-written blogposts. remember that? it wasn't so long ago. only a few months. and what things those few months have been filled with! traveling. weddings. christmas. new year. all that stuff, and more.

happily, I can at least report that I have, since that beautiful weekend in october, successfully written about the following promised topics:

William Gibson.

Sherlock Holmes. although that was only a fraction of it. at this point I may as well give up on writing a separate blogpost about this fabulous adaptation the BBC has done. I know it's insufferably geeky of me, but I just can't explain the intense delight I get from watching Sherlock Holmes wandering around modern London. if you talked to me in person very much at all last autumn, I probably told you about this show and how much I love it. the online episodes are no longer up... but I've got the DVD on hold at the library. with any luck I'll be able to assemble at least a few cool people to watch it with me, once the other 46 people who have it on hold have finished their turns.

and for the vaguely alluded to 'things unseen,' and 'things unsaid' I can offer up two not-exactly-what-I-had-in-mind posts that sort of fit, in spite of all my haphazard plans and spontaneous revisions: first and second.

one topic I said I'd definitely get to and still haven't is the family reunion one. today seems like a fitting day to talk about that, since tomorrow I will be off to see my clever sister and her boys. and littlest sister is coming too, with that new husband of hers. it's going to be quite the party.

so. family reunions.

really, all I was thinking about was how the main purpose of family reunions seems to be sharing news, and seeing how tall the grandkids have gotten, and finding out bits of old gossip. we can do so much of that stuff without leaving the house now. it's instantaneous, if you want it to be. photographs and videos and conversations all get recorded and uploaded and shared and commented on and linked to and blogged about, and it's so easy. why spend every summer trying to get everyone to agree on and congregate in one physical place? we already have a place. the internet can be a never-ending family reunion.

of course, it isn't and never can be the same, not least of all because there are people like your great uncle Joe who don't own a computer and don't need an email address and wouldn't know what to do with a link to your flickr account. he'd be left out of it all, wouldn't he? but then again... there are always those people who don't make it to real family reunions either, no matter how many months in advance you send the invitations. is it even possible to avoid leaving people out of these things?

I haven't been to an organized family reunion for a very long time. the closest thing to it must have been April of 2009, when my mum's side of the family all got together in southern Utah. that was beautiful. but even when everyone is in one place, it isn't like you can talk to all of them for long enough, anyway. sometimes you just have to sit and watch your crazy cousins playing tag in the backyard, and forget about trying to remember all their names. and maybe next year you'll be able to ask your grandma all those questions you've been meaning to ask her.

or maybe you should just get out your phone.