“What I came to say was: Have you seen Small anywhere about?”
“I don’t think so,” said Pooh.
And then, after thinking a little more, he said: “Who is Small?”
“One of my friends-and-relations,” said Rabbit carelessly.
This didn’t help Pooh much, because Rabbit had so many friends-and -
relations, and of such different sorts and sizes that he didn’t know
whether he ought to be looking for Small at the top of an oak-tree or in
the petal of a buttercup.
“I haven’t seen anybody to-day,” said Pooh, “not so as to say ‘Hallo Small!’
to. Did you want him for anything?”
“I don’t want him,” said Rabbit.
“But it’s always useful to know where a friend-or-relation is, whether
you want him or whether you don’t.”

If there is one true saying it is the one that you can choose your friends but you can not choose your relatives. I am not a very family orientated person, for all I care I could have been born with nary an aunt or an uncle a nephew or a niece, but my parents and their parents are extremely important to me. I know a lot of people feel that their lives has meaning because of their families and relatives. I think knowing that there is a unit somewhere in the world that you belong to makes you feel less isolated in this massive crazy world. I also know that one can feel like a complete alien exactly among those who you call your family. I think the politics of family and relations are very complex but that we learn a lot of life survival skills in those complex environments. Sometimes friends can become like family to you and I feel that these ‘families’ are no less real than one’s blood relations. Whether it is the family you were born into or the one you have adopted through friendships. Keeping in touch is what keeps them alive!