MY FAMILY CULTURE...IN A BAG

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture.

This feels like such a difficult question for me.  The most important thing to me would always be my family.  I feel like I do not live in the same generation as my mom and grandma.  I do not have any family heirlooms that represent who we are as a family for generations.  I feel like my family culture comes from all the things that we do on a daily basis.  For example, we talk about our day every night at dinner with each other.  We do this so much that as soon as we sit down at any table to eat, my 3 year old asks, "so, how was your day?"  Even if we just woke up and are eating breakfast.  So with that in mind I chose the following 3 items:

This is the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.  These two books teach me my spiritual relationship with God.  For me they go hand in hand and I can't use one without the other.  The Science and Health shows me how what we learn in the Bible is practical and can be demonstrated in the present.  This is also something that is deeply shared among my family.

My family loves to play games!  Card games are always our fallback game of choice and it has been for many generations.  My husband and I both have fond memories of learning to play euchre with our grandparents.

I don't know how I could choose just one, but I would have to bring a photo album.  I have always loved looking at pictures of when I was a child, but not nearly as much as I enjoy looking at pictures of my children when they were babies.  Pictures capture things that fade in our memories and I would be very sad to leave my many cherished albums!

If upon arrival I was only allowed to keep one item it would be my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.” (Science and Health, preface, p. vii:1) No matter where we went I would know that it could be filled with big blessings if we are leaning on God. 

This exercise has taught me how very little I value my material belongings as long as I have my family.  My husband and I don't even wear wedding bands.  My diamond fell out and he out grew his, considering he is 6' tall and only weighed 135 lbs. when we got married!  However, there are freedoms that we have in the United States that I take for granted like our first amendment rights for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of press.  

On the other hand It scares me how much technology has become such an integral part of our lives as well.  We listen to digital music while we cooked dinner on an electric stove while our clothes are drying in the electric dryer.  I  seriously considered whether to bring my phone as one of my 3 things, but my husband replied, "what if there is no electricity or internet?"  Hmmm, there are such places.  And with my own country crumbling how much would a phone really matter?  It would be about preserving the well-being of my children and that is how I decided on my 3 items.