18 Uncles — by Mitchell Glenn Peterson

Welcome to 18 Uncles, a project about reconnection and a celebration of family. After nine years abroad, I am returning home to rural Upper Michigan to spend time with my relatives, get to know my eighteen uncles, better understand my late father, and learn a thing or two about myself, contemporary America, and what makes life worth living.

Follow the journey and receive an email each week containing project updates and the latest article.

Growing up in such a large religious family, it can be hard to know everyone on a personal level. And I’ve wanted to remedy that for a while now. So, I started this writing project as a Trojan Horse that will force my 18 Uncles to sit down and chat with me one-to-one. Of course, I’ll be speaking to their better halves and getting golden insights from my 18 Aunties, and hopefully, by the end, I’ll know all of my cousins by name.

I also want to learn more about my late father who passed when I was eleven. My aunts and uncles knew him better than I ever did, and I’d like to hear more stories about his 80s perm days, his garage sale habits, and hopefully construct a better, fuller image of who he was as a human.

Those are the primary goals.

A secondary motivation is to be an example of respectful dialogue in a divided America. Too much discourse in my home country is hostile and combative, and, on paper, my uncles and I should follow the trend to a T. But we don’t need to agree on everything to respect one another.

I want to get to know them as men and find some common ground. I know it is there and believe there’s a lot more than people assume. But even if the overlap is simply that members of Congress shouldn’t be trading stocks on inside information, and we disagree on everything else, that’s fine.

I have no interest in changing their minds, convincing them of anything, or sharing my views without invitation.

We don’t need to agree on every issue; we do need to share the country together.

Maybe I’m incredibly naive, and we’ll avoid politics altogether. That’s okay. Maybe I don’t have the discipline, talent, or work ethic to write the book I can see so clearly now. That would hurt but would be okay as well.

In the worst-case scenario, I’ll know my family a lot better and then get on a plane to Albania or Khazakstan or Vietnam or Cameroon—all places I’m interested in living— and resume teaching English.

If you want to follow the journey and see if I can pull it off, subscribe for weekly blogs and updates.

If you would like access and to read a certain blog but can’t afford it, please email me at mgpeterson11@gmail.com and I will send you a link, no questions asked. I don’t want finances to be a barrier to reading the work.

One Love,

Mitch