Family will fail you, but only after you have failed them first. People like to say, “Family first!” but it’s more often than not an exaggeration of the truth: that 99 percent of the time we put our actual selves first. “Family first” is really the motto of a small nation, a band of mismatched but blood-knit folks always the first ones standing there looking down at you when you’re trying to get up, who on their best days are your first line of defense. “Family First” is a charge into battle. Less a simple conviction than a governing belief system. Less a passing hobby than an all-consuming passion. It is altogether an endeavor to health and happiness. Family is why you work, what you make, and what you go on living for. It’s what you leave in the end.

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