My brother, the de-dramatizer :)
You guys might have read a while ago about my very dearest friend, whom I see as a brother. He lives right here in Vancouver, and we have a very, very close friendship, like a brotherhood. He and I share a lot of things in common. We like a lot of the same music. We both speak at least three languages (and three of these are shared – English, French and Spanish), we both have PhDs and we even did our PhD under the same supervisor. We share the same love for family and friends and a great appreciation for good food, travelling and a balanced life in general.
My brother (I call him my brother in soul, because he is not my brother by blood but he might as well be) is an amazing guy. We have been there for each other and I am really happy that his girlfriend is now also one of my close friends – she DOES understand our very close friendship). My blood brothers (the four of them) love my brother in soul to bits too (two of them have met him in person and really, really like him). And my Mom, needless to say, adores him. I have to say that his parents and brother also love ME to death, so it all works out really nicely. AND both his parents and mine live in Mexico, so that’s yet another shared element to our lives.
We hadn’t had a chance to hang out in a while (our group of friends) and we decided on brunch at Enigma as it was the most convenient location. HZ and I were having this playful disagreement (we *love* to disagree and poke holes on each other’s arguments, because we are both really bright and we like to challenge each other’s assumptions and rationalizations) and when asked what we were talking about, he said “hey, that’s just between my brother and I”, which was very nice to hear. It’s true. There are things that we share just amongst ourselves and the fact that his girlfriend respects that is one of the great things that I love about her.
So, as we were having breakfast, someone made the comment about someone else being a “de-dramatizer”, and I agreed with CS that yeah, that sounds about right in regards to my brother (her partner). My brother HZ has the amazing ability to calm people down and help them analyze issues through a variety of lenses, and that helps people understand the issues at hand more clearly. I have to say that I’ve called upon his de-dramatizing skills more than once, and I am very grateful that he lives here in Vancouver, because he (along with all my other friends) helps me stay sane. Furthermore, the fact that we are both academics allows us to share a deeper understanding of the issues when we deal with both of our professional lives. I do hope that I have been been a de-dramatizer for him as much as he has been for me.
For all of what you’ve done for me, thank you brother.
Related posts:
This is lovely! I can somehow relate to this since there are people who are very close to me and they are more of a family to me than my biological ones. I usually call them my kindred spirits.
Anyway, Tanya sent me.