Jasper
by Sofiy Inck
This is an excerpt from Sofiy Inck’s Awesome Moment,” Jasper,” a reflection on family and community. Read the whole post here!
What does it mean to be a family? Can you love an adopted sibling like you would a biological sibling? Can you love a friend like you would a sister or a brother? …
One night my family was at [our friends'] house, as we often are, and Orna was holding Jasper. She asked me if I would hold him while she went to get a pacifier. Holding him in the crook of my elbow I started to sing “The Rainbow Connection” (by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher) very quietly, mostly to comfort myself. Jasper immediately went quiet. I started bouncing him and walking around the dining room.
As I put him down in a bouncy seat I wondered, what is a family? I love this baby like he was my brother, but he isn’t related to me at all. Is the love I have for Hannah, my sister, the same kind of love that I have for [my friend] Ruby? And now Jasper?
I think that a family is a group of people that care about each other. But they care about each other not because they are biologically related, but because they live in a way that makes each person know that they belong with another. With this sense of belonging comes a sense of responsibility. And that’s the kind of responsibility I feel for Jasper.
