Family Ties

           We expect ties with our with our immediate family, and to a lesser extent with our skin, to extend throughout the lifetimes of the people involved. This expectation is by no means always fulfilled, as a rising annulment rates and family break-ups indicate. Nevertheless, we still theoretically marry "until death do us part" and the social ideal is a lifetime relationship. Whether this is a proper or a realistic expectation in a society of high transience is debatable. The fact remains, however, that family links are expected to be long term, if not lifelong, and considerable guilt attaches to the person who breaks off such a relationship.