Relativity

At least three times in the past two days, I've had conversations(with different people) about my relatives.

First it was about the fact that my family is very scattered. At least partly because of that, when someone tells me about a place, I can normally say that I know someone from that area. In many cases, I can say I've been there, near there, and if not, I probably know someone who has.

That got me thinking. I don't actually feel like I know most of those people. I lost a lot of my memory about 4 1/2 years ago, and with the exception of one or two of them, haven't seen any of my relatives(beyond sisters, bro in-law, and parents) since about that time. I have vague memories about some of them. Others, I wouldn't be surprised if I bumped into them on the street and didn't know who they were. Well... I would be surprised if I just randomly bumped into them on the street, but that's not the point.

Trying to equate that to something more understandable, I guess it's like the stories your parents would tell you about relatives that aren't around anymore. With the exception that these relatives are still around... and I guess the exception that I'm in some of the stories they tell about them(which only makes it weirder).

I'm not sure why this topic keeps coming up in conversation. I would say that it's just because I've been thinking about it, but in most cases, I didn't initiate it. Maybe there's some big realization I'm supposed to be coming to from this. If so, I haven't found it yet.