family ties (post dated 3 May 2010)

written 3 May 2010:
i've spent the last week with my half brother, his lovely wife and their two fantastic boys on the pacific central florida coast. the original purpose of this visit was to have him fix my jaw that had been rearranged during the altercation in africa. the reality of this visit became startlingly clear within minutes of seeing the boys, Storm and Max: to aliven that lovely knot called the family tie.

we grew up with different circumstances, different stories, different aspirations, different decades but with similar genes and similar knowledge of a few things: forgiveness, empathy, love and compassion. my brother and i, we've got a lot going for us. we're both good looking, we're both generous and friendly. we both love family, even and almost especially when they are crazy. and we both speak our minds, regardless of the crowd or audience and rarely falter in speach. and today as he left for work and i sat in his lovely house, on the water, listening to the sounds of the boys waking up and the coffee brewing, i was brought to steamy eyes knowing that he really does love me. even though he doesn't have to.

a while back our dentist diagnosed and prescribed me with some very serious dental work that would almost certainly need to be followed up with very serious (especially to a24 year old) plastic surgery, leaving me breathless and sobbing after each visit. he wasn't wrong, he just wasn't right. for a second opinion we called my brother. within 3 minutes of explaination, he interrupted me, invited me to florida, said i can have you fixed in 30 minutes, with a tan to boot.

thus here i am, a working jaw, a fantastic starter tan and a new and well founded knowldege of my brother, the power of goodness, his infaliable wife, Maria, and what true love can look like. its been inspiring, encouraging and has allowed the cullmunation of what was the worst year of my life to be somewhat anticlimatic... just how i had hoped it would be.

while visiting with him and his family in Florida, i received news that i had gotten a creative writing job in Washington state and would be leaving for it at the end of May. this was very welcomed news and couldn't have been better timing. with the surgery behind me, the pain in the past, and this being the final installment of my long road to recovery i knew that this job, this creative, fast paced, career starting job was a perfect fit at a perfect time.

curt gave me more in that trip than i could have ever received in the years we grew up apart. i thank him, his lovely family and our dad for the chance to get to know him, to have the good fortune of being indebtted to him and the knowledge that he and i can be sibligns of differnt sorts and be very happy knowing it.