Family & Advice

Greg and I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by such a loving and caring family during the last few years. I love my family deeply but do not understand most of them one bit. The easiest way to say it is that my family is a cross between "Everybody Love Raymond" (yes, Marie is my grandmother!) and the movie "Home for the Holidays". Throw in some major problems and you have my family.Now, this is not to belittle them - just that I dont understand their way of life. Maybe it is because I watch someone fighting for his life every day that I think life is more precious than most in my family. My questions are: Why smoke if you know what the end result is? Why eat such poor foods when you know that you have heart disease in your family? Why sacrifice the body you already have, make it worse, and then complain about your body and your life?Okay - I am not on a soap box here - just that I have tried to figure it out and I can't. My aunt and I often joke that we are not part of the family that we know and were dropped here by aliens. There is always a person in the family that is the oddball - well, in mine, there are two - me and my aunt. The problem is that my logical sense has me try to figure out why people do the things they do. I have tried to give advice (when asked) but yet no one heeds it. I have told people how I have gone from 208lbs. to 126lbs. (at 5'5" tall), and it is easy, but no one is willing to do it. (laugh)So, if people know they have problems and dont take the advice, why bother asking for the advice in the first place? I suppose that is yet another question that my logical self needs to leave behind. Damn those 4 years of college Philosophy! (laugh)