Siblings

Being an only child leaves me with no conecpt of what a sibling relationship is like. The dynamic of having another person of equal standing in the hierarchy of the family is completely alien to me. Many have tried describing the relationship, but to their frustration (and mine) it was akin to describing the color red to the blind or the sound of the piano to the deaf.

What I have managed to gather so far is that it is somehow similar to having a childhood friend or schoolmate; someone with whom you share many early memories and ties and (more often than not) very few character traits. This is a generalization of course and most people's view vary because of circumstance and experience.

As if that wasn't confusing enough, I've also noticed how people feel about their siblings depends on age and gender: the youngest brother of an eldest sister is a different dynamic than the eldest brother of a middle daughter.

And when we discuss emotions it gets even more obscure. Sibling love, hate, jealousy, pride and rivarly all come into play.

What are siblings like after they stumble into adulthood and start making lives of their own? They seem to acknowledge that there exists a bond (whether they like it or not) that holds them together. A distant 'cord' that somehow connects their separate lives. But they also now respect the fact that they have become individual people. Though their siblings are close, their friends are even closer.

So I've given up on trying to run a simulation in my head of what it would be like to have a sibling because the myriad outcomes are just too confusing and I always seem to paint a rosy picture when clearly it doesn't always work that way.

I realize that I can never have a family of brothers...
but with my friends I can still have a brotherhood.