The Ever-Changing Cast of Characters

This week we have heard on the news about the changing nature of families in the United States. It seems that the number of people getting married is actually decreasing. We are now at 51% married couples. Many do not choose to marry for a variety of reasons we are told. One of the most important as we know is the recession (or depression as Paul Krugman, the economist, would say). More couples in a higher economic class marry compared to couples in a lower class.

While visiting with my friend Pat yesterday, we were sitting in her den, and she was explaining the stockings on the mantle which were already waiting for Santa's goodies. I noticed that on several that instead of having an embroidered name on them, they had a large white card with the name printed. She went on to explain that the cast of characters in her family was ever-changing. While I don't remember the actual names, the conversation went something like this, "Patty was married to Jimmy but now she is married to John," and so on.

I began thinking about my own family and realized that her perception is very true. We began with four of us--us and our two children. Kimberly was with her partner Stef and later with her partner Sheri. They now have a six-year-old son Cole. Chris, our son, was with his wife Carrie and had two children, Caitlyn and Charlie. Now he is with Meera and her two children, Ethan and Emma. Most families in the U. S. are now blended in any number of ways. We simply do as Pat has done, keep putting new cards on the stockings.