All the families of the universe are related. From ontological and taxonomical to genealogical cousins, we have ties to everything.
“Kinship” is that which creates, sustains, and reflects us. It is a way to know our selves, and to understand where we came from.
I wasn’t exactly sure if this aspect should come next, but events in my life unfolded in such a way that I had to put it first. That’s the nature of it, isn’t it? Some kind of obligation. A relationship to that which makes us, that binds us to uphold it. In the end it was a false alarm. All that remained was the sharp reminder of priorities.
Over the course of a lifetime the nature of family and what constitutes kin is bound to shift. I first understood this “chosen family” in a web of close friends, in fact various groups formed in diverse contexts that I was drawn to for different reasons. Each of these parts of myself, with their own kin, that knew that part of me. Thus was my whole.
Then my expanding humanist perspective saw myself in every person, every lifetime, every circumstance. It might seem corny but I mean watch some documentaries, travel to other countries, talk to strangers, try some drugs, sing in a choir, and really let it in, I think it’s easy feel connected to the fate and soul of every single human being. For better or worse.
But then I realized how disconnected I’d been to the rest of nature beyond my self and humanity, the interconnected web of life and matter that lives and breathes and socializes itself. And I see patterns above and below, from my broken family to climate change, of how we test these bonds and forget ourselves, to all our peril.