by Sylvia Woodham

Created on: June 29, 2009   Last Updated: July 01, 2009

Little Brothers

As the older sister, I admit, I was the instigator. Thankfully, few of my ideas were the sort to cause much trouble. The contrast between the our personalities remind me of Lucy and Linus. He was the quiet one, and I was the entrepreneur. Constantly forming clubs for the two of us, to accommodate the exclusion I often felt from the clubs of my peers, I found automatic acceptance and inclusion from him.

Once I took the fruit from the refrigerator to set up a stand in my own house - to sell to my parents? He happily manned it alongside me, without question of its logic. (I never claimed to have any actual business savvy) But unlike Linus and Lucy, I was usually the one with the crazy imagination, and I probably would have been the one suggesting that we await the Great Pumpkin. Like the fruit stand, he would have happily accompanied me without question.

I have a cassette tape I made when I got my first tape recorder when I was nine. My favorite pastime became interviewing my brother and my dog, even though it was my frustration that my brother's responses were slightly less predictable than those of the dog... His willingness to participate in endless series of questions about his best friends, his t-ball experiences, and favorite pastime of game playing, all in his patient, even-toned manner are a sharp contrast to my probing inquisitions, particularly when his answers weren't correct.

All in all, he was probably a better little brother than I was a big sister. I took pride in taking responsibility to keep him in line and to teach him proper ettiquette, but I was also quick to turn my back on him when other, better, more exciting opportunities came along. When my friends were around, whether he wanted to participate or not, he became invisible to me, unless needed to fill a role in our games. Perhaps not an uncommon way to behave toward your younger sibling, it was still an ungracious way to repay his unconditional acceptance and friendship.

As we have grown older, once my mother felt the need to observe to me how much my opinion mattered to him, though he would never admit it. Perhaps more sensitivity to my little brother and less narcissism and obsession about my own world would have presented a more balanced equation to our relationship. As a result, my tribute to my little brother is to recognize his appreciation, and my own shortcomings in repaying his kindness to me.

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