"Open up your eyes,
Save yourself from fading away now..."
-The Heart of Everything, Within Temptation
Once the first protocells laid down the blueprint for life, you would think that it was a straight forward journey from there. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Once proper life became established as the relatively simple cells in the harsh, alien world that was primordial Earth, it had the task of surviving everything that mother nature had to throw at it, putting the future of life at risk. There were cataclysmic meteorite bombardments, global ice ages and changes in atmospheric composition. Life would go two steps forward and then go three steps back. Life clung to existence, even in this Hadean Eon, but progress was slow.
Many events in modern human lives parallel this turbulent eon; the most notable object of pressure being the family. When the word ‘family’ is mentioned, one tends to think ‘Family… where to begin?’, and for good reason. For the sake of nobody in particular, or perhaps the local chav, let us begin with the definition of the word family.
family
• noun (pl. families) 1 a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit. 2 a group of people related by blood or marriage. 3 the children of a person or couple. 4 all the descendants of a common ancestor. 5 all the languages derived from a particular early language. 6 a group united by a significant shared characteristic. 7 Biology a principal taxonomic category ranking above genus and below order.
Ref. compact oxford dictionary
Perhaps we should spare the local chav of the definition.
Instantly, we can discount the first definition, it doesn’t need probing that the structures of modern families are as diverse as the finches. The biological definitions have a particular place in my heart, but it is unnecessary to explore them now. The definitions that seem most relevant are definitions 2 and 4.
We feel such emotions for our families. Emotions can be good and can be bad. General social view would deem the primary emotion of family life to be love, but Utopia this is not. There are family members who are hated, disliked, despised, liked, respected, accepted, mourned and so on. We have an affinity to our families, none the less, especially our immediate families. We would think it obvious to have the greatest affinity towards our closest family members, those with whom we share our houses, largest portion of DNA or time. Who would think that in all of the connotations of ‘family’, the joining factor is a small amount of DNA? Or is that question redundant in modern society? There are step families, foster families, adopted families, house families, family guys and many more. In recent decades, the position of the family has been diminished somewhat by new values and attitudes brought upon by the consumer and media obsessed society. What position does the family hold nowadays, and what position should it hold? Modern families tend to be small and there is a trend of families splitting up for whatever reasons. I am not here to condemn, but to merely observe and wonder.
Families are very prone to argue. Well, any group of people sharing a vicinity is prone to argue. Families come to mind as we all have/had some sort of family. We have experience in this matter. My family is no different. It is not shameful to admit that my family is just like any other in the fact that it argues. There are rifts comparable to oceanic trenches, which seem impossible to bridge. I often ask myself about what caused this and I have my theories. The main theory is one concerning how people live in the past. Old demons still pull strings, dictating who knows who, and who says what. I thought the political scene was in turmoil, but governmental politics have a strong rival in family politics. The confusions and nonsense that drives family politics would be crippling to a nation if brought into government in its full force, but it seems to have its niche safely within the family. This may look like a condemning view of family life, and it might even make me seem like I am anti-family. Well, rest assured that is not the case. I love my family very much, as love is that odd emotion which can function in conjunction with nearly any other emotion. Regardless of love, in recent years I have become all too aware that family life is not the rosy affair you are taught to believe that it is when you are child. If only.
Humans are odd organisms, with their abnormalities onset by their overlarge forebrains. We have complex societies, rules, regulations, opinions, social views, the X-factor and a whole host of other things. The family predates all these. So called ‘primitive’ tribal societies have close family connections and see importance in family, and the benefits that family brings. The family has endured for millennia, and the idea of living in a family is much more far reaching than the outstretched arms of Homo sapiens. In the rest of the animal kingdom, most notably the mammals, there is some sense of ‘family’. Chimpanzees, baboons, gorillas, elephants, dolphins, whales, bears, dogs and cats all are known to live in family groups. The family is an integral part of advanced life. Dolphins and chimpanzees are considered to be the next most intelligent animals after humans, their cognitive abilities bordering on sentience, and the family plays a vital role in their lives. The family, for whatever reason, be it innate or learned, will share with, comfort and recognise other family members. We do not know if dolphins and chimpanzees feel emotions as we do, it is yet another conundrum of neuroscience, but family is important, in some way.
Human society has changed rapidly in the past 100 years. Technology and values are changing so rapidly that ancient ideas such as family may seem old fashioned, and something to be treated with extra caution. But somehow, families endure. Through all of the arguments, there are still people who share with, comfort and recognise other family members. The modern world is an alien world which is different to older times as change is occurring so rapidly, and people are too confused to keep up. Technology dictates the path of modern society, and the run away pace that technology is travelling at is confusing modern society, leaving us in its dust wondering about our identities and values. For those of us that can’t keep up, the family is there to fall back on, a cushion… albeit a pin cushion at times. Families are not exempt from the general rule of existence. They must be able to adapt… or face extinction.
The modern Earth is just as alien as it was in the Hadean eon. There are modern cataclysms which are bombarding families. It is a case of survival of the fittest. Those families who can’t find their part of the formula will not survive and those hardy families who can will survive to prosper. The family will always have the same basic blue-print, but different families, like different species, will exploit their blue-print in different ways. It is up to the family to exploit it in the right way. They must move on from the demons of the past, embrace that which was good, and take it further. Yet again - idealism.
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