Mountains, Gandalf. Mountains! by TheGreyJedi

THEGREYJEDI'S BLOG

TheGreyJedi

Mountains, Gandalf. Mountains!
Sunday, June 20, 2004

I always have a strangely aristocratic feeling about me whenever I spend time with my dad or my dad's side of the family. My father, my aunts and uncles, my grandparents, are all comfortably in the upper-middle class of America. My father and step-mother recently purchased a huge house off of Hickory lake, which seems almost palatial. That and it feels more like home than I feel here in my mom's basement. (classic nerd joke here) That would have been enough of a recharge for me, but we also visited my family's place up in Sparta, which is squarely and securely in the middle of Appalachia. I love the mountains. Even compared to my rural livings, the air is clean and fragrant with Old Growth forest. It's simple and quiet up there. Aside from all of that, my father's side of the family all get along. Not only that, but instead of just a gathering of people that get along that just happen to be related, there's genuine familial love there. That underlying current of love that permeates everything they do, every shared story, every pick or jab, every meal, every shared grief or triumph. And it's humbling, too, in that I am the oldest son of the oldest son of the oldest son, of the Patriarch of this branch of Johnsons I belong to, the children and descendents of Harry Lester Johnson, Sr. Knowing that someday it will be me that puts on the mantle of patriarch of this rather large family has helped me keep some focus in my path in life. But I know that my path will make me the man I need to be to be the man that leads my siblings, my cousins, my future children, neices, and nephews.

It's just been a good weekend.

Oh, and I found a four-leaf clover so nyeh!