The Family Connection is perhaps the most important directive in our lives, right after self preservation. My wife Maddie comes from a large farm family. Her oldest sister left home before Maddie was born. She lived in a city and it took a whole day of travel plus expenses for them to meet. the older sister came to visit once each year, so they hardly knew each other. When Maddie left the farm, she went to the city and stayed with Annett who helped her to set herself up and become self sufficient. Maddie married me and I inherited the family connection. We stayed in touch, some times holidaying together, until Annett and later her husband passed away. The husband and I had a family connection even though we were strangers.
I have relatives in Europe. I never met them and we don't speak a common language. I truly don't even remember their names, which in any case I couldn't even pronounce properly. They are my cousins, but if I met them in the street I would never guess that we have "a family connection." In my younger days we could have met in opposing uniforms and would have eagerly killed each other. One never know, our physical appearance might even be identical. From old photographs, one can tell that we look similar to each other.
What is that family connection that we value much and are willing to invest in. It is simply the
knowing that something exists, something that is not physical. Maddy was born to the same mother that gave birth to her sister Annett many years before. They might have physical resemblance especially in medical ways. On the other hand they may not. They kept a relationship that was mutually beneficial. In my case the relationship to my relatives was never cultivated therefore its non-existent.
If I found a person injured on the side of the road and saved his life, I could be saving the life of one of my mother's nephews, I simply don't know. Because I don't know, all of the people in the world become potentially my relatives and share in my "family connection". My Christian faith dictates that if I help the least of my brothers I am helping my lord and saviour. The one who also said that we are all his mother and brothers if we do the biding of our God, namely helping the least of our brothers. What a circle.
I have a family, a tribe, a nation, simply because I know it. I look at myself as a part of something bigger. I can trace my connection to a big group of people through what I know and disassociate from others for the same reason. Am I a unique entity of any importance, or is there a thing called Humanity and I am just one tiny replaceable part in it.
