La Familia

Family, as defined by wikipedia (the new version of the truth as it stands online)
is "a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity or co-residence. Although the concept of consanguinity originally referred to relations by "blood", anthropologists have argued that one must understand the idea of "blood" metaphorically and that many societies understand family through other concepts rather than through genetic distance." I bring this up to explain part of my argument in an early morning discussion. For some reason this morning the topic of family and who is included was debated on Cascade Drive.

I have to agree with the anthropologists, whomever they may be, and say that your family is who you understand it to be. For me it is more than just my blood relatives, its my friends and those I love and care for. This would extend to my cousins' wife's' parents and even the parents of some of my friends whom I am close to. To me the family is what you make it and you get out of it what you put in. No, no family is perfect and sometimes there are those you don't want to claim, but who is to say that you aren't part of the family. Terrible!!

To be honest I would say Bobby and I are family and that Sadie and Hines are our children. They are puppies but I care for them as they are my kids and consider them an extension of who Bobby and I are. Is this wrong? Not in my opinion it's not. Even the black sheep in the family are your family, even when they aren't blood because you are defined by those around you and those you associate with. And at the end of the day all you have is your family and while my interpretation is a bit broader than others, it works for me and keeps me safe and happy. I sleep well knowing there are a bunch of people blood related and not that love me and consider me to be part of their family.

Should you want to do more research of your own on the term Family feel free to check out the Wikipedia full explanation HERE.