Faux Brotherhood

Jan 11, 2011 22:43

There is something that has been flipping my bitch switch recently, so this is a bit of a rant.

There are two kinds of "brother" in my life. One is my actual physical blood brothers. I have three of them. The other is my Kindred brothers. There are five of them.

The first kind of brother has years of history and family involved. Ups, downs, hardship, and laughter. They can call my "big bro" or similar.

The second kind of brother is because I have an oath with them. They have earned my respect, honour, and friendship. They are their because they want to be there, just as I am there for them.

Just because one feels that we share the same faith, does not mean we are brothers.

We are not brothers because I say something you like or agree with. I am a man of many dimensions and contain multitudes just because you like the particular face you see does not mean you have earned the right to call me brother.

These actions cheapen both of the above types of real brotherhood. Much like how there are real friends and then there are Facebook Friends. I will call upon my brothers in times of real crisis, need, or happiness. I will not call upon some random guy that is a near stranger that feels some sort of vibe or connection to me over an arbitrary comment or action I take.

I know there is not ill intent meant by these over sentimental people, but I have to usually really hold myself back from screaming "You are not my brother! Stop trying to equate some pixels with real human connection!" ... but then I would be rude and generally a dick.

I'm trying really hard to not be a dick, but in every post in response to my essays, or Mark's essays and someone tries equate their sentimentality to people who have the same blood as I, or who I have earned the privilege and respect from, just sends me to the moon.

So sure you wisenheimers get your brother jokes out in the comments of this post, but instead of some sort of over sentimentality or imagined sense of connection because you happen to agree with something I said, just say you frakking like it or call me your brother, we aren't and frankly, if that is your standard for a deep committed valuable either friendship or sibling ... I don't want to be your brother.

{/rant}

rant, heathenry

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