Are They Family If You Don’t Know Them?

I don't usually go off on rants. Especially when a well place, comedic smart-assed remark will do. This time, it's in the role of family. I have a lot of family members, as do many people. I try my best to be fair and giving to many of them. But what about the distant, distant family members? Should I give them a fair chance? When it comes to social media, these long distant relatives are closer than ever & that may be an issue.

So, a family member, who without going into a lot of details, is related to me through my grandfather. I've never met this person. In fact, I have not even accepted her "friend request". I've gotten to the point on social media, where if I don't actually know you, or are someone that I can entertain through my craft (comedy/radio) then you might be a bot trying to sell me something. I posted the story of me getting the COVID-19 vaccine on my social media & she went on to my page put her opinion. Yes, she's entitled to her opinion. The fact that the way I have my page set up, I guess she is even entitled to give her opinion on my page. But I took her comment as insulting.

Just cause you get the shot don't mean you won't get it. And to top it off we still have to wear a mask and stay 6 feet apart. So what's the point of it. I can get drunk fall down and make my shoulder hurt.

Yeah, in many ways she's right. I have issues with the fact that we still need to social distance and mask up for time being, so she's right there too. I guess what bugs me the most is, she didn't even click on the original article to read! To learn that the main point for me getting the vaccine was that it was my choice.

So that brings me to my main thought. Even though it's a long distant relation, should I still consider them family? Or just like cancel culture, boom, block & be done? I can honestly say that this interaction, is the most that I've dealt with this person (besides the occasional "like"). I do have another "friend request" from another "long distance" family member, who I didn't block, but had to "ignore". Mainly because they just got annoying. She was trying to facebook / facetime call me, ALL THE TIME. She is an older one too, so I'm not sure if she really wanted to see my ugly mug at 3am in the morning (since she lives in the Philippines and the time difference) or if she was just lonely and didn't know how to use the computer.

Another thought, maybe I'm the one who is getting older, grumpier, and ready to just yell at people from my digital porch. I have close friends that I consider family, and family members who have burned me so bad, they're nothing to me. So where should these two be? Only thing that's for sure, if I'm ever on the Family Feud... they won't be one of my teammates!