You keep using those words...

I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

Over the last few months I have heard countless people talk of family and brother or sisterhood. And not in the cloistered sense. It seems that everywhere I turn people are looking to build surrogate families. That is not what bothers me. What stomps on my nerves in gigantic fucking combat boots is how I have seen people who use those terms, and at the slightest hint of fuck-upery drop their 'brother' or 'sister' like a hot skillet. If these people were truly like a 'family', then you would realize that you are in it for the long haul. You can't decide your blood relative is no longer related when they act like an ass, so why is it okay to treat the people you decide to make your family that way?

For me it is a great and freaking fantastic honor to have someone that I am not related to claim me as family, and then come through for me when the fit hits the shan. I can count on one hand the number of people that I think would be there to bail my ass out of jail in the middle of the night. And I would do the same for them. It also saddens me when people whom I considered 'family' choose to quit talking to me. It hurts worse than a severe injury. It lasts longer, and it cuts deeper.

If our words truly have meaning and value, then why do so many insist on passing them out like condoms at public schools? When we decide to give our words power, when we decide that we want them to carry weight, then we have to have the testicular fortitude to back up our ideals. When you choose to disregard the weight of your words, then you truly are lost.