Love from your big brother

Nostalgia is a funny thing. If I look back far enough, I have fond memories and not-so-fond memories. Most memories are what we make of them after the event, of course.

Friday night I cheered my one and only little sister on as she walked in her high school graduation. The evening ceremony reminded me of when I graduated from high school. Not that this post is really about my graduation.

When I graduated high school, my sister wasn't born yet. With about five months to go, my sister was someone I had not yet met, came to the ceremonies, and didn't so much as give me a card. I couldn't have been more excited that I would have a sister soon.

Not to diminish the value of having great brothers, but a sister was something I had wanted for a long time. Too bad she came along as I was embarking on new chapters in my living arrangements and who would have known at that time that she would move to Vegas in only a few years. But I still remember holding her and wanting nothing but the best for her.

She was always a cute girl but Ian and I knew she was more than cute. She was always incredibly smart and sensitive. She could picked out Bob Marley on the stereo or by any assortment of pictures by the age of 2, which is a heck of a lot better than the classical composers. She never ceased to amaze me as she kept her life in much better order than the sometimes chaotic upbringing our mom invoked. It is a testament to her beliefs and her strength to see her develop into an increasingly independent woman.

We haven't lived in the same state for a long time. High school unavoidably interferred with much quality time with my sister as I was not as cool or entertaining as her friends, but I still was there waiting in the wings to be her brother. I remember the time I gave her my sincerest beliefs about ignoring the mean girls, the girls who thought money mattered most, and how I would stomp on them if Alex wished it. It was one of those moments where I was able to impart guidance, to bestow sibling love, and to offer to flex some muscle to defend my sister.

I still am there. And, I think, she knows I always will be.

Congratulations Alex.

- Your brother

Tube Socks, The Farside, and Family - The True Meaning of Christmas

Some time ago when I was a teenager, I stopped covetting every new gadget or toy promoted around the Christmas Holiday. As a parochial school student, I was exposed to the Christmas Story and had great opportunities to think both academically and spiritually on the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; however, private Catholic school didn't break my fascination with gifts around the holidays. I can't point out the exact moment that it occurred, but I found my reason for Christmas.

Many know that Christians believe that God sent his only son Jesus to help all men achieve grace. Jesus was destined to suffer for the sins of all humankind, past and present, for which I am eternally a big fan. If you are familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac, Abraham had not been able to sire a child until Isaac and God asks him to sacrifice this one and only son. Fortunately, God let Abraham off the hook at the last minute. God, on the other hand, knew Jesus would have to be scarificed for the sins of all mankind. There could be no last minute get out of jail free card for Jesus. The birth of Jesus is considered by many as the first Christmas gift.

Around the Christmas holiday, many people seem to get so involved in finding sale items or hard-to-find kids toys that the spirit of that first Christmas gift seems to be lost in the shuffle. If Christian churches had lines of church-goers rounding a city block and waiting at the door Christmas day then one could say we got it. If my family started the Christmas morning festivities singing a round of Happy Birthday, we could say we get it. There is more to Christmas for me, as I mentioned, when I got "it" as a teenager.

I think we are stuck with some of the commercial hype. I think we are fortunate to have things like midnight mass and Sunday Christmas services. I find solace in these few truths about Christmas. I plan to write about each of these topics at some point down the road.



Number one, tube socks are a gift from the heart.

Number two, The Farside Off-The-Wall Calendar was and will always be the commercial gift that I wanted, every year.

Number three, Christmas is the best draw to see the most family. The best reason, other than the birth of Jesus, to celebrate Christmas.

Pre-historic and Modern Parenting

Kids are wonderful beings which we parents try to mold, to protect, and to uplift. I realize there are bad parents out there. The majority of us who are parents or had parents can say with some certainty that parents aren't intentionally bad at parenting, we just make our mistakes.

Some time ago for which we do not have written records, men taught their sons how to hunt and women taught their girls to gather. I'm sure it wasn't a good idea to lash a spearhead on to a spear without a double knot. Nor was it sage advice to mistake a poisonous root for an edible tuber. Humans dating back much longer than we can tell in stories had parents who worried about educating their children.

Of course, prehistoric humans made some fatal and near-fatal mistakes. I bet the teenagers thought they had the worst parents when mom fed them the wrong root or dad wouldn't let the youngsters hunt big game. All the other young men were allowed to hunt. No one else had a mom who was a bad cook.

Though the disappointments may be different today, kids don't appreciate that parents are fallible. Kids don't appreciate that their parents may have a good reason for grounding them from the big hunt.