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July 23, 2007
A Really Good Day
I had breakfast with my brother on Saturday.
This involved getting up half an hour earlier than usual, driving for almost two hours (Why, why can't people do the minimum posted speed limit on 2-lane country highways? Why?) and getting a bit disorientated in downtown Spokane because they closed my freeway exit for construction, damn WDOT. However, I arrived at his hotel only 30 minutes late.
We had an awesome breakfast, a great walk along/around the falls and about 7 gallons each of water and iced tea at Red Robin in lieu of lunch. (I don't know about you, John, but I didn't need anything more to eat until dinner. That breakfast kept me going all day.) All in all, I spent about five and 1/2 hours with my brother, with one or both of us talking the entire time. It was an amazing day, like a six-hour vacation.
I don't know many people who could do that with a sibling. I'm really fortunate, I know, in having a brother with whom I can have an all-day conversation that's interesting the whole time. And how lucky I am to have a brother who, when he's in my neck of the woods will call me to say, "Hey, are you free on Saturday, because I'd like to spend some time with you." How many people are that fortunate?
I spent a good chunk of the drive home pondering our relationship. How much of it is because of the people we grew up to be, and how much of it is because our mother insisted we not take each other for granted? Would we have grown up to be so close if we hadn't constantly heard, "Be good to him/her. He's the only brother/She's the only sister you have"? I don't think it has anything to do with our ending up in related fields (he's a cinematographer), that's more coincidence than anything else.
And how much of it is genetic? We're both intelligent, creative, curious people. What part of that is training and what part of that is native to our grey matter? We're both pretty tolerant of humanity in general (unless people are being selfish or stupid; intolerance and idiocy make us about equally crazy), but that's a function of our upbringing. As is the tendency to follow our hearts. But this fierce, protective love I have for my little brother is something that has been with me his entire life, as have his reciprocated feelings about me. So where did those come from? Does it matter? Or should I just thank my lucky stars I have a brother who is worth the world to me and a joy to be around?
I think probably the latter.
Posted by sally at July 23, 2007 09:51 AM
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