Fictive kinship...................

     One of the main reasons humans have been so successful, as Israeli researcher Yuval Noah Harari points out, is due to what is called "fictive kinship."  Most species hang out only with family.  Everybody else is a potential enemy.  Good ol' Homo sapiens have been so successful because we've extended the definition of family by using mutually agreed upon stories.  Families are not merely blood relatives.  We're in many families:  We're Americans.  We're IBM employees.  We're on the same softball team.  Most simply, we're friends.  Friends are just the family we choose.  This allows us to collaborate on a scale that's impossible for other animals.  This is the secret to our success as a species.  It's also the secret to your success as an individual:  friendship.

-Eric Barker,  Barking Up The Wrong Tree:  The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

This wee corner of the blogosphere is filled with "fictive kinship."  It is why I'm still here.