No, no...I don't know what it is.  Just thought one of you might.

I have been looking for it most of my life. If and when I do find it I'm not sure how I will react to it. Thus far my life is complete with a great, but some what disfunctional, family.

Steve Loop wrote:

 A good friend of mine with a master's in psych once observed that what passes for "family normalcy" is usually just an implicit agreement among a group of folks related by blood as to how they'll deal with each other and the world.  Her thesis?  A "normal" family and a "dysfunctional" family are not all that distinguishable.  Can't disagree with her.

I think that's a great point. I've often been struck by how we sometimes take things out on the people we love because we understand that they will tolerate the expression of the misplaced frustration, or the sadness, or anger that really stems from people or things outside of the family.   Probably a spectrum--with families in which there is more net unhappiness than happiness generated in the interaction being "dysfunctional".

 One of my early mentors when I was doing family advocacy as a volunteer for families with special needs children made this statement to me:  "Mark, there is no such thing as a dysfunctional family."  What she meant by that was that if a family was not functional, it would not be a family.  Still at a loss. I asked her to explain.  "At some level, a family functions and so what we have are families that function better or worse according to the judgement of an outsider, usually it is a social worker.  Our job is to not cling to such judgements but to find every way we can to improve the function of families."  By keeping this in mind, I have been fortunate to see families that seemed irreparably torn apart, put back together.

Personally, I am able to find my meaning of life by following Jesus' example one day at a time.