A European Man Changed the Way I View Family Forever

When he asked if I liked his family, I spoke about them individually and added them up to being good.

He said he liked my family because I was a good person and they raised me.

The difference in how we perceived family was enlightening for me.

Many of us from the US have been programmed to operate with a very individualistic and somewhat cold mindset toward family and community.

It’s common to hear the rhetoric that praises people parting ways with their families for even the slightest of slights and glorifying getting things you want in life on your own.

People often speak about how they’ll stunt on others around them and desire to be the alpha- men and women alike.

Many people joke, reveal constantly, and celebrate others who say they don’t want to start a family.

They don’t want a man and/or children.

Family has lost its sense of sacredness in modern, progressive culture.

And yet, people talk about how lonely, depressed, anxious, and sick they are. I wonder why?

Could it be that you have subscribed to the trend of vilifying the very building blocks of your biology and support through the highs and lows of life that would inevitably come your way?

Has the culture been shaped in such a way as to promote weak connections and souls simply a commodity; replaceable and thus not valuable?

That’s what happened in my case.

This does not support people staying in abusive home lives. By all means, please leave if that is the case.

However, the culture is the problem.

When a culture shifts from sacredness and honoring God, these things are bound to happen.

So it’s not a surprise that the Georgian man who comes from a Christian nation that still upholds the values of sanctity, honor, respect, family, and reputation would consider my family good on the basis of how I showed up while I evaluated individuals- as though I needed to weigh the good against the bad instead of accepting that as people we all come with good and bad.

And this has begun a shift in how I approach family and community.

And that culture and others like it have drawn my interest to learn from them and adopt.