If there's one thing I always say when talking about my family it's this: we're complicated. I can never keep up with the various multi-decade long family feuds, who's speaking to whom, who swore they'd kill the other on sight, etc. We're Irish, German, French, Austrian, etc. and quite dramatic apparently. We're a family in which different groups gather for the various obligatory holidays and that's about it.
This afternoon, a few members of my family got together to eat dinner with a semi-long-lost uncle from Claifornia I haven't visited with since I was twelve. This afternoon has been really nice, an actual family occasion (granted there are only 5 of us here) where uncles and aunts came over to exchange hugs, stories, and copious amounts of food and where I unexpectedly learned a bit more about myself.
Today, I learned I'm related to Leslie LaGroves, a graduate of MIT, West Point, and the project manager "master mind" of the Manhattan project "responsible for killing all those Japanese people" as my aunt phrased it. LaGroves was also responsible for the CIA's operational policy of sharing information on a need to know basis, a topic of much discussion at the dinner table--more so than our family's hand in the dropping of the atomic bomb. Casual tidbit of dinner conversation I'm sure. Why hasn't anyone mentioned this before?
I also learned...as my other uncle pointed out, that I have double jointed thumbs. Sweet.
A 20-something's exploration of life, love, the pursuit of happiness, and art.
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