What Does It Mean to Belong?

Do you know what belonging means? You can look in a dictionary or thesaurus if you would like, but I'm referring to how the word works. Any definition you find in any dictionary may suffice for you, I want you to tell me how I can tell when I belong to a certain group of people. Take a second, a minute, an hour, or whatever amount of time you want to answer that question.

How can I tell when I belong to a certain group of people?

...

Was it difficult? Did it require some deep thought? It's weird, right? In simpler terms, you know what it is and you can tell when you feel it, but you can't put it into words.

Am I close at all to what you're thinking?

Consider how hard it is to define for anybody. Some would consider belonging to be understanding the cultural aspects of the group in question; for example, you understand how the culture your parents brought you up in and have been living in, so therefore you belong with your family in a way. Or maybe you understand how your group of friends works; therefore, you belong to this group of friends, right?

Now think about that in an entirely different sphere: Irish immigration to the pre-Civil War United States. Americans back then understood how the Irish operated: they were Catholics, beer-drinkers, and blue-collar laborers most of the time. Conversely, the Irish understood that most Americans were Protestants who, in a substantial part, supported their American Temperance Movement.

But think logically. Does this mean that the Irish and the Americans belonged together?

If you ask American Nativists, people back then who were largely anti-immigration and strictly Protestant, you may hear responses that don't quite coincide with this definition of belonging.

But at least there is another way to look at this, right?

Some may claim that belonging is the state of feeling a mutual emotional connection to a group of people. This is defensible as well; for example, two partners within a relationship would share a mutual emotional connection and therefore belong together.

But what happens when it isn't mutual? Think of it. You know for a fact that humans are capable of pretending and displaying false emotions; that's essentially how acting works. How am I supposed to tell whether this emotional connection I have to this person shared between us as opposed to simply given by me to this other person?

Conclusively, here's the question of wisdom: How can I tell when I'm belonging?