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What is a Family?

 


Is a family something you are born into, or is it created over time? What and who makes up a family? Is a family just living arrangements, or is it something deeper, or may I say even spiritual? Like life, can your family change over time, or is it an arrangement that you are locked into wether you like it or not? Is our family chosen for us, or do we still have the right to say that I belong to this family or that? Does the human family exist like it existed 20 years ago, or has the definition of family changed over time, that almost everybody can be family? 


I believe we have seen a significant change in the way humanity does and defines family. I don’t think we can accurately say that family plays the same role in our world as the traditional definition of the family is being overrun by our choices to make our world families what ever they are! There are new normals about marriage and who we can legally love, therefore this automatically changes how we viewed family in our modern history. Whatever era you believe yourself to be living in, there has been significant changes in the definition of marriage, which changes the traditional definition of the family. These changes don’t eliminate the family entirely, but they change the definition of what makes up a family!


We are social beings, and we want to feel that we belong, so we create and gravitate towords families that are familiar to us, and think the same way we do! There is enough division in the world right now, that the idea that communities strengthen our society alone is no longer true. Communities are strengthened by the family you are from, but if your family is divided it will no longer act as a preservative to your community. Therefore we must clearly define the term family in the post-modern era, so that people aren’t confused as to where they come from, and to whom they belong. A family that is no longer acting as a traditional family, isn’t a family in the sense that we used to understand family. There might be people in that family who feel they don’t belong, and obviously should be free to form their own communities and family, based on principles that our society has adopted in the 21st century. 


No one should feel left out in the 21 century. Everyone should feel a sense of community and belonging. So what now exactly is the family? This is the question? This is Mike.


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