Social structure--Mr. Washington, thus 'family' structure was essentially set almost literally in stone when you marched along the Delaware and across farm fields to fight for this new Republic.
It's now 2022 and I doubt you'd recognize much [even in Philadelphia] let alone understand the 21st Century family/social structure that looks more higgledy-piggledy than steady.
For one, a man may 'marry' another man and a woman may 'marry another woman...It is a mystery even to heterosexual folks as to how or why they are/were attracted to the person they married, but not to others they only dated. Hense, the mystery of why a man would be attracted to another man [romantically] or a woman attracted to another woman would be equally puzzling...
That aside...For another, divorce and remarriage is commonplace. So common that 49% of all first marriages end in divorce, with lesser-known statistics for the failure of second marriages at 62% -or- that 70% of third marriages collapse. Was the custom of arranged marriages a more stable system that broke down as more and more couples were allowed to select their own mate based on emotion? Or was there something else?
Paring and procreation among critters in nature typically follows specific cycles like seasons or the maturity of surviving offspring. Except for elephants most herd animals are not emotionally involved, but function on pure instinct for species preservation. Even with our nearest 'relatives' among other primates there's accepted order--again designed to protect survival of the species.
As a consequence of evolution what broke down in humans between the demise of the Neanderthal and the emergence of modern Homo Sapiens? Apparently, we-humans have a larger brain, [than most plants & animals] but has our ability to 'think' become our greatest handicap? Do we 'think' too much? Is there too much emotion with not enough reason involved with our thought processes?
Watching the 6 o'clock news - everyday - certainly offers [circumstantial] evidence to support that premise...
*Finding Our Roots... My family DNA hopscotches all over this planet.
Via ships from Norway, chromosomes landed in Scotland then Ireland then France. From there distinctive genetic qualities sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to merge with members of the Chippewa Nation in the Northern Great Lakes region of Upper and Lower Canada.
Time marching into another century [with wars shifting the original border between the new American Republic and Mexico] many former Spanish colonists remained in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. And in the decades since, some of those decedents have also met up with some of those who carried that original Norwegian DNA. 
And as immigration exploded from passenger ships to passenger planes immigrants from Turkey and Egypt landed here along with those from South Korea and South Vietnam. Then blind dates, dances, schools and careers brought that mosaic of characteristics together with those from Norway, Ireland and Scottland and France to create the amazing 'salad' of DNA that is my family, from 10 different countries...
Not only is every culture from every country represented in Canada and the United States, but my family polymers coiling around each other from 10 countries make up characteristics found in my nephews, nieces, son-in-laws, daughter-in-laws, sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws, grandchildren...You get my drift.
But more than that--with so much [human] variety in my family there is no place for discrimination. We've all gotten to know each other over the years with birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving/Chuseaok, Christmas, New Years, Cinco de Mayo, Tet Holiday, Hung King Festival, Saami [Flag] Day... Because we're all related and because we're close there is no space for intolerance.
When I look around much of North America my family isn't unique. Longtime friends, former coworkers and neighbors were born into families filled with descendants from Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. Sooo, Fellow-Travelers as we end 2022 and look to 2023 how is it we're still harboring any hate for anyone? We are them and they are us...
**Who Lives Here... Where is here? I don't mean 'here' as in Canada or United States or France or Argentina or Ethiopia or any specific country. By 'here' I mean EARTH...
This is IT folks. No matter how many galaxies the Web telescope reveals or how many rockets NASA, Musk or Bezos send beyond the ozone - you and I have only one 'home' Planet Earth. We all live here together. No person is here illegally. No person is illegitimate or an accident.
If it is true, then that humans and other mammals and plants and birds and fish and insects have only Earth to call home then is it also true that if one bullet or one arrow or one spear is aimed at even one other person--any weapon is also pointed at all of us? 
Why is one leader in Russia terrorizing 'cousins/family in Ukraine? Why did Putin dimmish the credibility of his entire adult life as a leader along with Russia's Global standing to alienate international investment that brought jobs for his fellow citizens? Why aren't friends and colleagues in NATO and the UN and those who know better stepping in to stop 19th Century thinking that scars us all well into this 21st Century?
Why is China threatening their cousins in Taiwan? Does the leadership in China not have enough landmass to cultivate or people to invent to move their progress forward without taking from one tiny peaceful island? This is more disappointing 19th Century mentality.
Why is Iran and most of the Middle East continuing to suppress women when it stalls their advancement, pushing it back by 2,000 years? And why is the rest of their population though educated, but oppressed with new ideas subjected to silence? This mindset is 1st Century AD.
Why aren't 'we' doing better? Why aren't you and I complaining louder and longer every single week to those we elect and pay - to do the job of leading w-i-t-h e-t-h-i-c-s?
Spoiler alert--to all self-serving, corrupt leaders both elected and corporate [in this country and everywhere else] you can't take it with you! I can assure everyone that you're going to die with exactly the same amount of money you had when you were born. Zip-Zero-Nada. So, folks all that remains is 'how' you will be remembered which will reflect on your children and grandchildren. Do you want to be revered or reviled...
*Castro started out with the best of intensions, but messed up big time...Gandhi never swayed from his mission... Who wants to be remembered with someone like Castro? Who wants to be remembered with someone like Gandhi?
Sherrie Todd-Beshore is an award-winning mystery, suspense novelist and former journalist...
