Clan vs. Family

When wife E. first told me about her family, I said: "That's a clan." "It's not a clan," she said gently. "It's a family." What looks to us like a clan, looks (to a clan) like a family. It is a very large, loving, selfless group of people where parents and children and in-laws and all seem so muddled up that no one seems to know the difference. This morning I took my car to another minister for a service. We came upon the subject -- in particular a clan's inclusion of their disabled members, whom Europeans tend to exclude. "There's a lot that we can learn from that," he said, "but we are learning." OBSERVATION: African clans are not the same as European clans, which tend to be more manipulative (says I).