I was communicating with my youngest son last week, and I say communicating because we were texting as time goes on texting becomes the preferred way to communicate rather than talking. When he said he was envious of my relationship with my siblings. He wanted to have a similar relationship with his siblings and wondered why he didn’t. My first flippant response was to say perhaps I had better parents than he had. And that may be true, however, I believe in unconditional love. There are many definitions of unconditional love most are altruistic and have been defined by many philosophers better than I.

My definition is that I love my family unconditionally. And what that means is that I do not always agree with what they say, or what they do, or how they live their lives. I do not subscribe to the belief that unconditional love means that I have to accept another’s beliefs as fact. I believe that a person can have differing opinions, lifestyles, tastes, or belief systems than mine and not have that deter from my love for them. It is difficult to explain but I will do my best. I love all of my children and my siblings without conditions. I disagree with how some of my siblings have raise their children, I disagree with some of their philosophies on life, I can even disagree with how they think of me but that does not deter from my love for them.

When I transitioned most of my children had a difficult time with it many of my siblings at a difficult time it. Some adapted rather quickly others not so fast. I am very close to one of my brothers who has had a hard time with it but he is been supportive and genuinely accepting, but still having a hard time understanding. Two of my children do not speak to me and have distance their relationship with me. This has caused me great pain I would like to have them try to make an effort to communicate with me. I would like an explanation of why they refuse to be involved in my life, and yet if they came up to me and said hi dad how’s it going my response would be just fine and you? You see I love them unconditionally they have hurt me, and my human side wants to know why but more important I want the relationship. I don’t expect them to understand, as I don’t expect everyone to understand everything about me as I do not understand everything about them. But in the uniqueness of unconditional love it is the differences that make each individual unique. And so it is the differences that we should celebrate. I don’t like all kinds of music, but I know that others do and I can accept that. I know that not everyone likes the music I like and they should be able to accept that. I relish the fact that in raising children I raised individuals not clones. They all have their own case in music fashion in lifestyles and I enjoy their individuality and would love to connect with their individuality, they may have a hard time with their father living as a woman but whether they look at me as dad or as Rhonda or as that SOB or parental unit I don’t care. I love them unconditionally.

I don’t know that I’ve expressed this in the best manner but is how I understand it