AN ULTRA-UNION

"Walking the Dog, Forest Park, St. Louis"
oil, by Kay Crain

      Delycia and I are in St. Louis for a Salsich family reunion, but it seems to me that the prefix is not the proper one. Instead of a reunion, perhaps we should see it as something like an ultra-union. The prefix “re” implies that we’re joining in a union again, as though an earlier union was broken and now we are redoing it, but the truth is that our family union has never been broken, and in fact cannot be broken. Actually, all of us on earth – people, plants, animals, even the widespread sky and mountains and oceans – are part of an enduring union, a family of wonders working together without often realizing it. We are all as closely connected as the air we share and the sunlight that lands on each of us. There’s the family of the Salsichs, yes, but then there’s what we might call the family of the universe, which consists of all the miracles ever made – every person, speck of dust, maple tree, and mouse. It’s a family, a union, that can’t come to an end, can’t be de-unioned, and therefore never needs to be re-unioned. We are enjoying our gathering in St. Louis, but we’re thinking of it not so much as a reunion, but more as an ultra-union  – a celebration to heighten and intensify our appreciation of the everlasting union of which all of us across the universe have always been members.