Who are we anyway?

We have just completed a week of honoring my Aunt Mary Nokes. She is a wonderful person and part of the posterity of Leslie and Rose Fairbourn. She is my mothers next younger sister and playmate, choirmate, schoolmate, farmhand and most of all friend. She leaves behind 7 of her 8 children and several grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. She is also in the Joseph Michael Smith Line, The Ebenezer Brown Line, the Fairbourns, the Wrights, and Rynearsons, just to name a few.
I am reminded of an incident that happened to My Sister Paula, cousin Sharon and I many years ago at a Joseph Michael Smith Family Reunion.
We were playing on the lawn at the Draper Park, having a great time being with cousins and eating good food. We did not know that we were intruding into the territory of someone else. We were young and naïve to the subtleties of family hierarchy. We were approached by a young girl who had also been playing in the same area, she promptly asked who we were and what we were doing there. We explained that we were at a family reunion. She asked us which family we were attending. And We explained with pride that we were at the Smith Family Reunion. Upon giving this answer we were asked “oh so you name is Smith?” and of course our reply was no and tried to tell her our names, but she would have nothing of an explanation. She was after all a “Smith” and we were not, and she let us know at that point that we should show her much respect because of her surname.
It has been many years in fact generations have been added to that family line. We are all, I was going to say older but I don’t like that word right now so it will suffice to say we are all much wiser, more mature in our understanding of family relationships and our understanding of the eternal family plan.
We all have families of our own and have attended numerous reunions over the years. Paula, Sharon and I, because of our marriages each have a new surname. Which pushes us one step further from that supreme status, and each of us have added additional lines to our linage and posterity. We also have an understanding of adoption, and the sealing powers promised to us in our Temples. We are truly blessed and continue to thank our Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the Eternal Family that our Gospel brings to us.
Now back to this “Smith cousin” I became reacquainted with said cousin a few months back, I have not mentioned the above incident to her and was not sure if I should even broach the subject of our relationship. She is after all a “Smith” and I can tell you with assurance that she can still look down her nose at you and put you in your proper place, so when I had the opportunity to speak with her I was not at all surprised when she told me her name, still Smith and although she had married, she had kept the same surname because her husband while not of our Smith line but just the same he is a Smith.
I guess what I am trying to say is, we are all one big family. We are all children of a loving and kind Father in Heaven. We are each of us proud of our heritage. Some of us are, if you will excuse my terminology, “Name Snobs”
I know this was long and I have been rambling, this was just something I needed to get off my chest. Thanks for listening.