Saturday, September 29, 2012

DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY

“Hermes gazed up at the stars. 'My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it. It doesn't matter if they hate you, or embarrass you, or simply don't appreciate your genius for inventing the Internet--”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

I was once asked my friend, "What is a family for you?" then he gave me a figurative definition of what family means. "Family makes a body,though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But it is combined, the members of the body, and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body,but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.If one part suffers,every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. " he said.

I definitely agree with him because even we turn the world upside-down, we can never change the fact about, what and who is our family. We can never hate a member of a family and disown them. We can never always get rid of our problems in life. No matter how many obstacles, sufferings and hardships we faced with our family, there will always be a way on how to overcome it, just be there with each other and problems will be easy to surpassed. The downs of one member, the downs of all the members; and the pleasure of one member, the pleasure of all the members. Love, understanding and respect are the ingredients of harmonious relationships within the family.

As I was browsing in the Internet, I found many definitions what is a family. I have read this article Definitions of Family from Factbook which says that in US Census Bureau, "A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder’s family in census tabulations. Thus, the number of family households is equal to the number of families, but family households may include more members than do families. A household can contain only one family for purposes of census tabulations. Not all households contain families since a household may comprise a group of unrelated people or one person living alone." which clearly means that a family can be related or unrelated people but not in the tabulations of census for they have their own families and another thing is that they may be living alone.

As I continued surfing, I also scanned and read an article about the Traditional Filipino Family which states that "Filipinos highly value the presence of their families more than anything. Regardless of the liberal influence they have gotten from the west, the family remained the basic unit of their society. This trait clearly shows among Filipinos abroad who suffer homesickness and tough work just to support their families back home in the Philippines. " In summary of the article, Filipinos have great appreciation with their family, especially with their grandparents because Filipinos believe that "Kung hindi ka lilingon sa iyong pinaggalingan, hindi ka makakarating sa iyong paroroonan."

Therefore, I conclude that, we may all have our own definitions of family, but there are main things or characteristics a family should have. It is the acceptance, love, understanding and respect we should dwell on. Regardless of differences, similarities, and beliefs of one another. But what makes a family?



 Happy reading guys! :)) Thank you and God Bless! :))

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