‘Blood is thicker than water’ surely you’re familiar with the phrase? It always seems to come up when family is involved. That, above all, the ties that connect us are strongest in our blood. What is coded in our genes, what flows in our veins, is our debt and duty to those who birthed us. But curiously enough, though blood may be thicker than water, even this old proverb has had its meaning diluted.
The original quotation is supposedly: 'The Blood of the Covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb', and yet even this old English proverb has its roots in an Arabic proverb, 'Blood is thicker than Milk', meaning that the connections forged when we shed blood, sweat and tears are stronger than what held us in our maternal womb. That those ties held by passion are stronger than the milk which nourished us when we were young. Either way, depending on the interpretation, etymology or language, it all points to relationships, and what it means to be in a relationship.
Families are our first taste of what it means to be in a
