Day 36: 1 Year, 1 Month, and 15 Days

1 Year, 1 Month, and 15 Days - that's how much time separates me from my next older sibling in age. It was his birthday this past Sunday and he's been on my mind a lot lately.

As you can imagine we were close growing up. We experienced a lot together. Much more so than I did with my other brothers and sisters. Sure we had our typical sibling rivalry but I don't think we ever tried to kill each other or anything (except maybe that time when he sped out of control down the street with me hanging onto the luggage rack).

We understand each other perfectly (or so it seems). I know him almost as well as I know myself and visa versa. We've been accused of having our own language. We don't, but often others can't follow our soft, mumbled, rapid paced conversations that are full of so much inside knowledge and reading of each others minds that it would seem we must have developed a new tongue. A mere grunt accompanied by a slight inclination of the head speaks volumes.

There are few people in the world that you can trust completely. I don't mean that I could trust completely, but that can be trusted completely regardless of who you are. He is one. There are also few people in the world that have so many idiosyncrasies. He is truly unique.

Inside the rough idiosyncrasies seen on the outside is a generous and compassionate soul. He feels deeply, especially for others - even complete strangers. Most people don't know that about him.

He is the one that, when a boy got beat up by our friend in elementary school, stayed behind after the crowd dispersed, put his arm around the crying boy, helped him into the school and took care of him.

When we got lost on a boy scout outing and I got cold he gave me his jacket and took care of me (and the rest of us).

When we were boys (our wives think we still are) we discovered everything together. Our adventures are too numerous to name but would make a great epic tale of boyhood.

Because he was a year older, he showed me the ropes in most things. It wasn't until later that I realized he had a different and far superior set of ropes than most people.

I ended up taller than him. It was during this passing him up phase of my life that I first discovered he was 1 year, 1 month, and 15 days older than me. He informed me of this on a regular basis and was always ready to demonstrate what this meant.

Now that we're both grown with families of our own, I look back and realize what a part of me he is. He will always be my big brother. He will always be an example to me. We will always share a closeness that can't be replicated. We would gladly offer any sacrifice for each other and it would never cross our minds that we were sacrificing. He will always be 1 year, 1 month, and 15 days older than me. For this I am grateful.