Just the other day I mentioned how I ended up celebrating World Philosophy Day with my family. It got me thinking about family and how things have changed over the years.

When I was younger my family for me was simply my dad, my mom, and my siblings. Things were much simpler then. I didn’t even question the role of the family, never though about. A family just was and no one can make it any different. Then I started growing up. I had my first classmate in 4th grade whose parents were divorced. I heard from my older sister how one of her friends was the 2nd family of their dad. My concept of family was shaken and a philosophical debate raged in my head, the process of which I wasn’t aware of. I realized then some families just wasn’t – JUST WAS. I didn’t know what to make of that.

Then I went to high school and things got even crazier. I met a friend who shared to me one time during a quiet night how her own uncle used to rape her when they visited his house. Now this totally flipped my world around. I got really mad and kept on pushing my mom asking her how bad things like these can’t happen. I never told her what the real case was though. I learned then that not family members fulfill their roles and some family you can end up hating. I also learned that even when you are the child sometimes you have to be the one to shield your parents from the truth. That was when I started growing up.

Now, I have my own family and each day I am re-learning the beauty of family. Things don’t always go the way they should but we just have to sort things out in our mind. I sometimes wish things would be black and white and the horrible side of some families can be wiped clean but then again my definition of family has changed. It’s not family is just is, it’s not just the family you are born in, it’s who we choose to bring in our lives and chooses to bring ours in theirs. It’s the good with the bad and hopefully more good than bad.

Till now there are days when I keep turning the concept of family over and over in my head but what I have learned is that more important than the concept is simply being there with and for our family. And THAT is my family philosophy.

World Philosophy Day has come and gone and I’m left wondering how most people ended up celebrating it.

I ended up celebrating it with my family albeit the most philosophical question we ended up discussing that day was “Where should we eat?” and a spirited defense from each one on why we should eat at each person’s preferred place (By the way I didn’t win. The kids as always won and we got fried chicken.). It was a day well spent though because though they didn’t know it I decided to practice my philosophy of FAMILY FIRST on World Philosophy Day.

Of course there are other bigger events that went on around the world in celebration of the event from September 16-20, 2009, the biggest of which is of course the international component of World Philosophy Day in Moscow and Saint Petersburg hosted by the Russian Federation that I wrote about last month.

UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, also issued a statement about the need for an international cultural dialogue. In Director-General Bokova’s statement she said:

“In the run up to 2010, declared by the United Nations General Assembly the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, it is more important than ever before to examine the current foundations for the free flow of discourse and practice, out of which world cultural diversity is woven.

Philosophy, along with the other social and human sciences, can help us renew the debate on how to engage in this dialogue, which could be defined as a dynamic chorus of social and cultural relationships and interactions open to the plurality of the world. As societies increasingly learn how to live in multicultural environments, we need to shed light on our joint capacity to bring together individual and collective imaginations.”

Now you may not have engaged in a cultural dialogue but everyday if you choose to appreciate and celebrate the diversity of cultures, whether by learning a bit more about another culture or your own, you will have done a real important thing.

As for those who didn’t get to celebrate the World Philosophy Day, why not declare your own day and do something to share and discussion your philosophies and/or practice your own views.