“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.”
– Hermes, Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan

It’s been said that nobody fights like family. That gets messy in any circumstance, but especially when noble ranks are involved, let alone when family includes gods. So, Hermes can well know what he is talking about here, as he sends a young Percy Jackson to go and try to help his wayward son, Luke. Luke has serious issues with the gods, especially his father, so much so that he has basically become one of the foremost leaders of an anti-god army of humans, demigods, lesser gods, monsters, and even titans. Yeah, he’s pretty far gone, but still, there are few who know and love him who just don’t give up on him.

Myself, I have long since had to come to terms with how broken my family has been, and yet I have also counted myself blessed that we have been nothing near so bad as some other families I have seen. We’ve been divided by our disputes, but not a one of us would ever mean to hurt another one of us. Indeed, past arguments notwithstanding, we still all feel very protective of each other. If push came to shove, we’d have one another’s backs, and help however we could, the best that we could.

That is miles better than so many others. I’ve seen families who have betrayed, abandoned, abused, and hurt each other in a multitude of ways. Yet many of them still somehow cling together, limping on through Hell or high water. Heck, I once had a number of friends who I considered as family to me, and now I find that I have but one of them left as a true friend. But I still have my family. They may not have always been able to help me, but they have never abandoned me.

We still fight, of course, as we disagree about various things. Even so, I would do anything I could to help them, and I know they would do the same.

Family. When done right, it is a glorious, wonderful thing, and even when done wrong, it can still endure almost anything, even itself.

It is the most basic building block of civilization, the foundation of every life from childhood on.

Family finds you when you are lost, even when you’re the one who managed to willfully get yourself that way.

Family remembers everything, and forgives anything.

Family is who knows all the worst parts of you, and loves you anyway. (that’s from another quote I’ll have to use sometime)

Family irritates us to no end, and loves us without limit.

I love my family, and I am so very thankful for them!