Family: a reservoir of social wealth

At the moment that we are born, we inherit a huge reservoir of social wealth: family. If you are lucky, you inherit a large number of family members who positively interact with you. Regardless, we all inherit at least some people in our family.

These family members serve as your initial social wealth. They provide for your emotional needs of security, belonging, connectedness, etc. They also help guide you as you try to understand the physical and social world. These family members serve as the backbone of your initial social interactions. They have a strong influence in shaping the foundation of your emotional well being, and the strength of this foundation is extremely important throughout your life for your emotional self confidence and stability. The pillars of this wealth are the parents, who not only provide social wealth but also are the main source of your economic wealth, as they provide for your physical and emotional necessities. The amount of social wealth(numbers of positive family members) that you are born into is just as important as the amount of monetary wealth(how well off your family is) that you are born into.

As we get older and develop new sources of social wealth(new friends, spouse, children, etc.), this reservoir of social wealth should not be discarded, but rather this precious resource should be nurtured. If possible, all attempts should be made to keep the interactions alive with as many of these family members as possible throughout our lifetime. Many of these connections will be strong and will provide a continuous source of social wealth to help our emotional well being. As we obtain new social wealth, we should try to add to our social wealth and not just replace the old wealth with new. In the fast pace of life these days, many times it is easy to forget that we have this reservoir, but the great thing about this reservoir is that it is usually never too late to rejuvenate these interactions; for family will always be family.

What are your thoughts on family? Please comment below