Life has a way of rumpling things....like names.

Take ours, for instance....a name that was synonymous with violence, drunkenness, murder and robbery in the home towns that John's family grew up in.

When it became my name, I laundered it, pressed it and was very careful to keep it hanging nicely. I silenced the ghosts from the past and I was proud that in our hometown, people associated our name with good and respectful things....tidy things.

...but life has a way of rumpling people.....and names...
Like the crease from the husband who lived through depression...
or the messiness from the sons who were arrested on drug charges...
How about the big crinkles from the daughter who has lived with violent boyfriends?
Then there is a large black spot from the daughter who left home and told everyone many things about us that were untrue....and untidy.
The disheveled list goes on and on. And try as I might, I can no longer protect our name from the mess.
We are undone people and must learn to live in the untidiness of humanity.

.... our Father still loves us no matter how rumpled our name gets.