WE'RE JUST ONE BIG FAMILY

My step-grandson, Stephen Sachs, is currently touring London and much of Europe. He will be presenting his sister, Merritt, at her wedding in Greece. This will be the official wedding. I officiated an unrecorded ceremony for them in Sedona several weeks ago.

I envy Steve a bit. At the same time, I'm very happy that he can take a trip like this. I know it will be a highlight of his life and he's taking it at an age when he is still full of vibrant energy. He can't help but return home with a lot of memories and an expanded awareness.

Would I take such a trip if I could? In a heartbeat. I'd love to see all those countries from which my ancestors came; the British Isles, Germany, France and a lot more I know nothing about. Again, I'll say it -- we're all cousins somewhere along the line. Politics, religion and cultures divide us and hide the fact that we're really all one big family.

In Phoenix, I had black neighbors next door and across the street. We got along just fine, as we should. Their ancestors and mine were exactly the same people. There was a time when I bought that garbage that black people were the cursed sons of Ham. How dumb I was! All that biblically based bullshit is just that -- pure bullshit!

My Native American adopted step-son comes from the same source, just a different geographical route that swung through Asia and across the Bering Sea. We're all one species, and the fact that any one of us that is fertile can reproduce with any other fertile member of the opposite sex from anywhere in the world proves that. The fact that any of us with normal brain power can absorb the same educational and technological things also proves we're all the same.

So, no matter where I might travel, or wherever Steve travels, we're just getting acqainted with family we didn't know before.