Today, is my oldest brother’s birthday. He is golden. I am very blessed to have him for a big brother. For a dear friend. I’ve been thinking about him a lot today. Even more so, because I am scanning our old family albums, and I came across his little Smug Mug all over the place.
In fact, I scanned his 6th birthday just this morning. How is that for Time Travel, Mr. Einstein? (Sidebar on Time Travel: Those Quantum Physicists have been making some astounding breakthroughs lately in understanding how time folds over itself. I wish I were that smart. I feel like I understand Quantum Physics like I understand automobiles. I know how to drive one down the road, but I have NO idea how all the gazillion parts fit together to make it actually work. The QP boggle my brain sometimes.)
Enough of that. Back to the birthday. My brother’s sixth. It was probably not so great for a little kid. One of my sisters was born his 6th birthday. That means little Eddie, probably didn’t get a party, or any presents, a cake, or even a pat on the head. I mean, Mom was super-prego prior to the fact, and during the actual “birthday”…. she was probably pretty busy moving another kid through the birth canal.
I’m the youngest in the family. So I don’t know the feeling of having another kid enter the picture. But I bet the older ones weren’t so crazy about it. “Great….. another kid in this house. And we still only have one bathroom.”
Nonetheless, if I know my brother, he probably took it all in his little six-year-old-stride. He seems to be really good at taking things in stride. I wish I were better at that too.
These days, we don’t see eachother very much…. at least in the true physical sense. He lives on the other side of the United States… way up in the corner. Thanks goodness for our digital world… on this occasion.
But I think about him every day. As I do all my brothers and sisters.. and parents. I guess that is how family goes with me. Although some of us are closer than other, and our big family diversity is quite variegated…. I hold them all close in my heart.
Especially my big brother.
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
“I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, “aw shit, he’s up!”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience