TheBanyanTree: Happy Birthday to My Brother -- 50 Today!

[Monique Colver]

(picture of said brother several years ago at
http://open.salon.com/blog/moniquec/2009/09/24/to_my_brother_on_his_50th_birthday)

I have known you all your life. Fifty years – how can that be? I don't
know about you, little brother, but it doesn't seem very likely that
either of us could be this age yet, and since I'm older, I'm obviously
way over 50. Or slightly over. That would be more like it.

You didn't turn out as flighty as I did. Even younger, you were the
responsible one. You were also the smart one, and the popular one. But
I didn't hold it against you. You couldn't help it, after all. I grew
up and ran away from home, and you stayed close and finished college
in an orderly fashion. Your life was always so well ordered and
stable. I could never stand to have one job for more than a few years
at a time, always restless for the next thing, and you stayed the
course and prospered. I thought you were fabulously well organized and
responsible.

Once, when your girls were little, I was in town and we met up at
mom's house. You told the girls who I was, since I wasn't around much,
and said that you and I looked alike. Wow. You have no idea how that
made me feel. My little brother talked about a family resemblance as
if it were nothing significant, but to me it meant tons. It meant I
had a really cool brother who acknowledged me as family.

That may not seem like much, but we led such different lives, and I
was never sure of where I stood.

While I was still debating the merits of having children or not having
children, you had two girls. While I never came to the conclusion that
me having children would be a good idea for anyone involved, you
brought up two daughters who are both wonderful. (I'd like to adopt
them, even though they're in their twenties now, just because they're
so cool, just so you know.) And you remarried and got two more ready
made kids, and then managed to become a grandfather, while I was still
debating the relative merits of having a child.

I was always behind you, even though I was older.

And now your oldest daughter is expecting a baby, right around my
birthday. I'm hoping for my birthday, anyway, so any sort of influence
you have would be much appreciated. It might be totally up to the
baby, but just in case.

I'm in the habit of spilling out my entire life story to the world at
large, but you, not so much. I can't quite explain it, but in some
ways we're so different it's like we're the same. Or maybe it just
feels that way because you're my brother, and you and I share the same
mother and father, and no matter which parent we were with at any
given time, you and I were there together. We share our parents with
others, but not the same two, which is no doubt why we look alike. Or
used to look alike. I've aged, but you haven't. Or have you? Do you
feel older? Do you feel 50? I don't. I know inside you're still the
goofy little kid I grew up with, but don't worry -- I won't tell
anyone.

Happy Birthday Mike,

xoxo

-- 
Monique Colver