Happy Birthday to My Brother Sam

Brothering is a strange thing. It's never a matter of how much you get along, which we did and didn't growing up, just like any brothers, but brothers, parents, family are simply a fact of life. It's never an option with brothers like there is with friends: you can't just stop being brothers.

That's nothing but a good thing. You learn that there are always-there's in your life. Distance of geography and even emotional distances—like my ex sister-in-law created at every opportunity to suit her own selfish, fucked-up agendas—don't change the force of nature that is Family.

As adults, we are all very close, and I love my entire family very much. Perhaps more importantly, we all like each other. I wish the world were smaller. I wish, often, that I lived just down the street from them like they do now back in PA.

You know that phrase, “standing on the shoulders of giants”? Rest assured that its first and most fundamental meaning is family. They're there for you, which lets you reach new heights in your own life. And you're there for them, which means you remain open and available to the world and to a greater sense of reality.

Happy Birthday, Sam!