Family

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I saw Prince of Persia three times, each viewing accompanied by different groups of people. I really enjoyed the movie, and each successive time I felt a greater significance attached to the line spoken by the King to his adopted son Dastan: 

"Family; the bond between brothers is the sword that defends the empire."

Pictured above is the eldest of my three brothers Mick, who is twenty-two years old. In recent years I've felt a distance grow between my brothers and myself, and whether it be just part of growing up, or something I've subconsciously help construct (or perhaps something they have individually constructed), this is a distance I'm trying to shorten of late. Mick's lifestyle doesn't always mesh well with mine, and as a result we spend a lot of time apart, but recently we've been able to find a lot of middle ground where we can spend time with each other and both have a really good time. 

My second brother, Kory, just left last week for London to serve for two years as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, preaching the good news of the Gospel of Christ to the people of southern London. His passion for snowboarding over the past two seasons has allowed me to spend more time with him than the rest of my siblings during the time since returning from my full-time mission nearly five years ago. It is my hope that I can continue building a closer relationship with him while he's on the other side of the globe.

There is a large age-gap between Kyle and I, and as a result our schedules rarely work out, and we don't have a ton in common. He loves to spend his time exploring the limits of different video games and shooting pellet guns at his friend's farm, and hiking and snowboarding have little interest for him currently. In fact, nothing really interests him, including getting his driver license or a job, although he recently got hired on as an extra hand at his buddy's farm milking cows and doing odd jobs. It's tough to build a close relationship that is full of depth and meaning when you don't have a ton in common, but we've recently been able to have a lot of fun together and I feel like things are looking up across the board with my brothers.

 

Oh, what can I say? Elanor a spoiled attention seeker who loves to get her brothers in trouble by making a scene out of just about anything, but she still manages to put a smile on my face everytime I spend time around her. She's nine-years-old, and trying to grow up much too fast. Her recent obsession is text-messaging. When Kory left for his mission last Thursday, his cell-phone unwittingly fell into the groping hands of Elanor, and now almost daily I get a "How R U?" or a "Lol" from Elanor. She's definitely not satisfied with being nine, and I think nineteen can't come too soon in her eyes. Mick taught her to do a backflip on the trampoline a couple weeks ago, and now she's managed to do a backflip while holding the cell phone and probably texting with one hand at the same time. 

I love my family, and although we're kind of mess, whose family isn't? I submit that the moment the perfect family appears, the world will end. Until then, I'll keep mine.