Brothers

The history of my family is a bit foggy. Mostly due to lack of communication and in-fighting. Now, I will not bore you with the in-fighting. (Another blog for another time) My sole purpose here is the amazing generational divide between brothers. For three generations, beginning with my father, the brothers of my clan have had an estrangement for long periods of time. Decades to quarter centuries long, we have chosen to only communicate by phone or by social media.

Personally, I have not seen my brother in five years. We began speaking again around a year ago. My father hasn't seen his brother, to my knowledge, in sixteen years. They speak on the phone every few months. Its sad to see what we have become.

I fear for my children. They are so compared to my brother and I. I see shades of us, the fights they have and the things they do. The similarities are a bit overwhelming. I am working to break the cycle and see them through to a better life. They are five and three years old. If I can plant the seed of brotherhood and the strength of that bond. They may be young, but children are smart. Sponge-like are their brains, I pray that the seed will take and flourish into a great redwood.

My brother and I are just now seeing our mistakes. We have worked hard to rectify them and plan on doing more to strengthen said bond. I truly miss my brother and I believe he misses me. Over the course of our lifetime thus far, we have relied on the friendship of others and called them brothers; neglecting the fact that in kinship, we had brothers all along.

It should be common sense. The movies show brothers as inseparable with a bond stronger than diamonds, even in the face of adversity. Reality shows, when the going gets tough, sometimes that bond can be broken, In severe cases, the bridge is burned permanently. I know in my heart that I will never let that happen. I know in his heart, he would never let that happen. When our parents split, I told him we would always be together. I have learned, through my own sons, I need to keep that promise better. It was supposed to be him and I versus the world. Now we have our own families and we are still so young. Therefore it is our growing families together versus the world. The time we have on this earth is short by comparison, but I believe it will be much more enjoyable with family at your side. Brothers are meant to be there. Always.