I am one of many.  There’s an Elder, an Heir, an Afterthought, and a Partial.  Elder, of course, is awesome, as an eldest should be.  Mini-adult, little Grown, from early on. 

Heir is … well, Heir.  Entitled, selfish, as expected. 

Afterthought should not exist, as Partial, but both do, for whatever reason. 

Afterthought is one parent’s fault, Partial is the other.

Partial lives elsewhere, and is in touch with Afterthought and Heir, tho’ not in that order. 

Partial chats with Heir and Afterthought … Afterthought and Elder are in touch, but Elder likes Elder’s life, and Heir, Afterthought, and Partial don’t have much of a role, there.  Some, but … negligible.

A parent died a while ago, and Elder, Heir, Afterthought, and Partial all came together.

At that time, Elder, Heir, Afterthought and Partial understood the distance, and sought to maintain it … to a certain extent. 

Partial is likely the most mature of all the many, in some ways, but Partial’s life is … complicated, self-inflictedly so.

Partial recently updated Afterthought on an event in Heir’s life (NDE?  Maybe, pics certainly suggest so), and Afterthought felt a bit conflicted.  After all, there is blood there, but not much else.

Is one required to care re the tragedies of a sibling with whom one has no contact/connection/communication?

When the other parent dies, some of the many will likely come together again, but … not necessarily, because some of the many do not have contact with that parent, altho’ likely have some claim to some of other parent’s stuff … not much, but maybe.  Other parent has nothing to do with some of the many (think: restraining order, police calls, banishment, oops) but deals on the regular with others of the many, so there’s that.

Guess the question:  Do we owe a debt to blood?  Methinks not, but mealsothinks … maybe.  Probably.  {Genesis 34:27}