Sunday, July 12, 2009

My brother Al and his family.

This is my brother Al's family: His wife of 24 years, Kathy, and his three sons, Scott, at whose wedding this picture was taken, Kevin (all the way to the right) and Colin (on the left).

Al and I have a complicated relationship that I would describe as a work in progress: We struggle frequently to find common ground: He's Pepsi, and I'm Coke. He's the White Sox, I'm the Cubs. He's a Republican, I'm a Democrat. These are just some of the ways in which we differ, and boy, it'd be nice to have some easy stuff on which to build, though I think that our upbringing and personalities have seen to it that our relationship would never be easy.

At the core, however, we love each other, and we both believe the effort we put forth in our relationship is very much worthwhile. And, although we don't often understand one another's point of view, we like each other. So there's our common ground: Love. We are just working on the details . . .



Al and Kathy have built a strong marriage, and have raised three beautiful, loving sons. These young men are fun to be around; I enjoy them so much. And they are so kind. Al and Kathy can feel justly proud that they are sending out into the world three genuinely nice human beings who will bring joy to others.

3 comments:

Barb said...

Nice photo of their family. Sometimes it the differences in people's opinions that make life interesting.

Anonymous said...

Sis,you have described our relationship very eloquently.Thank you for the kind words about my family.I hope you know that all my boys have a special place in their hearts for you.
I wish we had more things in common,but the lack of similar interest does not mean that my love towards you is any less.You will always be my big sister.

Angela2932 said...

"Anonymous" above does not appear to be really too anonymous! How nice to see his words along with yours, and I really like how you wrote about this bond, about love and the history of kinship and early memories trumping all the other differences. How could we ever be who we are without our siblings?