Family? Oh, and Love and Futility

I recently returned from a family vacation to Montana and Utah. My father's family lives in a small town in Montana, and to put it neatly, it's a totally different world. As I attended the commemoration of my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, I thought about the nature of family. Were these people around me my family? Technically...yes, they are my blood relatives. However, when I re-examined the definition of family, I came to a different conclusion. If a family member is someone you love, care about, and would personally sacrifice for, then nearly none of these people were my family. Shoving aside the notion that I was being hard hearted or insensitive, I decided to be honest with myself. I didn't care about these people. I cared a bit sure, but I cared much less about the well-being of my so called extended "family" than I did of friends at school. And honestly, they probably feel the same way. Blood bonds people together naturally, but if you talk to the person once every two years, the whole family relationship thing usually just doesn't click. So that got me thinking about who is really family? For me, my family is my immediate family, my sibling's spouses, and their children, as well as a few of my friends.

In church, I grew up being told that I should love everyone, like Jesus does. I never really understood how that was possible, or at least feasible. That is, until I tried. I realized that society's definition of love is both deceptive and shallow. I also realized that if love was defined as the willingness to sacrifice for another, then I did indeed love a lot of people. I am still working on the whole "love your enemy" thing and I'm definately still working on the whole concept in general. It's amazing though to see how it changes your perspective about everyone. Try it.

And finally, I was thinking about how much of what we do is totally useless. Either useless in a very direct literal way. Like being on Facebook when I could be learning and reading something, or in a more abstract long term way. Like why am I doing what I am doing with my life? What should you be doing in your life? Well, the answer is here in this post.