The sum of us

In ten minutes: the project stood clearly before us. Four antique prints from Lisbon, Portugal. Framed by Art & Beyond in the Gateway Plaza. Nice guy named Bob at the end of his long career, trying to squeeze every last second out of his retirement that he can. He's probably 78 or 79, but acting like he's 62 or 63. Doesn't want people to know that he's forced to work a dozen years beyond the socially acceptable retirement age.

Bob did a terrific job framing the four prints. Trouble was, they weren't the size exact size. Some were horizontally oriented, some were vertically oriented. But we'd all thought they'd come out the same. Don't know why. So Mike and I picked up the prints from Bob, quelling over how wondahful they were and oh what a faabulous job he had done in framing them. The Lisbon trip echoed from the eight-week past as we savored the last glimpse of how it felt to breathe Portuguese air. It really wasn't that different from Florida air, but we liked to pretend it was; we'd stayed at a Four Seasons hotel, had massages and facials and were really, really happy with it. A lovely time had been had by all.

But I digress. The three of us stood in the library, wondering how and where to hang these four portraits. Alicia stressed over them. This was her home, after all, and she wanted, really wanted to place them in a beautiful place where she, her husband, and their 5-year old boy could see them and remember how wonderful a trip it had been. But measuring and hanging them? Way too complicated. And then there was task-master Mike, always ready to pitch in and make life a little easier for the people he loved. And he adored his sister Alicia ... would do anything for her just like she'd do for him. And had done for him, many times, with his topsy-turvy relationship roller coaster. And then we added Jim to the picture ... neurotic, insecure, poor Jim. Poor Jim, always trying to please and always trying to fit in. Always trying to be perfect because his mother raised him to think he wasn't good enough. And Jim could add, subtract, multiply, and divide better than anyone except the fictional characters he created in his mind.

So Alicia, Mike, and Jim all worked together to hang the pictures. Jim measured and dotted light pencil marks on the wall where the nails just hadda go. Mike took off his little footies and stood on a chair, banging four nails into the wall. Alicia arranged the pictures like she wanted, left to right, and asked Mike to hang them that way. And then we put them on the wall ... and they were perfect, just right as they should've been. Alicia was happy; she'd been overwhelmed by the task but her brother and his partner had stepped up to bat. Mike was happy; he was being useful to his little big sister. Jim was happy; he felt like he'd done some useful and showed up his mother: yes, I am good enough! And four pretty paintings from Lisbon now hung on the wall, evenly and perfectly spaced above the sofa.

And that's what makes a family. The sum of all the strengths and the sum of all the weaknesses.