Have you ever taken the time to consider who your family is? Is it about a connection or genetics? I used to think that *family* meant the people who I came from and who I was genetically connected to. Over the years I’ve come to think that it has a lot more to do with connection.
There are people who are your parents, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews. If you don’t know anything about them as people, don’t talk or interact with them, if you don’t share your good and bad times I contend that they aren’t family. In today’s technology age of email, blogs, text messaging, video phones, cell phones, and yes the traditional mail system still works there is really no excuse for NOT communicating with your genetic family. Unless, of course, there is no connection….
There are people I’ve met in my life who I feel are my true family. People who I talk with on a weekly basis, my children are familiar with, whom I send Christmas cards to and get them in return, ones that I look forward to spending my time with. It’s interesting how much I may not have in common with my *true* family, but I still have a deep connection with them. We all come from different backgrounds, different religions, different political views yet we enjoy each other company and choose to keep each other close.
Why is it that my genetic family who some of them have known me since before I was born don’t call or return my emails, yet a person I may have spent a hard and emotionally painful 2 weeks with following 9/11 will always keep me updated on their family happenings and what-nots?
How much are you supposed to try and try to have a connection before it’s acceptable to give up? Why once you do give up (to save your sanity) are you the vilian for not showing up to birthday parties and holiday events?
Either way it’s really irrelivant…. People are who they are and i’m done trying to change them. I’m going to nurture the *family* that I do have and not worry about the rest. It’s really their loss anyway.
